Latest Test and Measurement News

Test Solution for 400GBASE-ZR Transceiver Interfaces

05 April 2022 – Anritsu announced that the Network Master Pro 1040A now supports tests of 400GBASE-ZR standard optical modules facilitating low-cost datacenter interconnects (DCI). In addition, Anritsu has also developed the optional Ethernet 4x100G N Port BERT and Ethernet 2x200G N Port BERT M1040A software solutions for breakout-type communications quality tests to reduce DCI test workloads. These upgraded functions supporting tests for transitioning to 400GBASE-ZR circuits as well as introduction of breakout-type interfaces will help cut datacenter construction and expansion costs.

Datacenters are growing at a rapid pace due to the spread of 5G services, teleworking, and online teaching as well as advances in digital transformation (DX) meeting social needs. Limits on available space, power-supply capacity, and air-conditioning can cause problems in scaling-up the capacity of established medium-scale datacenters so increasing the number of distributed medium datacenters can be more efficient than building new hyperscale datacenters, which is driving demand for DCI between more medium-scale datacenters.

Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) circuits provided from network operators are used widely for DCI but are expensive. Recently, the market trend towards opening and disaggregation of WDM systems is driving demand for 400GBASE-ZR transceivers, which is helping cut circuit costs.

On the other hand, each datacenter becomes more efficient at the same time. Although high-speed datacenter interconnects (DCI) link separate datacenters, the many low-speed distribution port connections occupy a large some datacenter space. This space-saving issue is solved by using breakout-type interfaces.

For example, the 400GBASE-XDR4 standard uses only one 400G port on the same panel whereas four 100G ports were previously required, which is four times more space efficient than running four 100G cables. Moreover, less power is used because the number of laser elements is reduced from the four required for each of the communications wavelengths used by the four 100G links to one laser used by the 400G link. However, introduction of these breakout-type interfaces by datacenters requires transceiver and equipment acceptance tests.

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