MultiPhy targets 2013 for its coherent metro chip
Created October 9, 2012MultiPhy has given early details of its 100Gbps coherent chip for metro networks, with samples expected in 2013.
The company says it is seeing a market requirement for coherent technology’s deployment in the metro. “Everyone expects to see it [coherent metro] in the next two to three years,” said Avi Shabtai, CEO of MultiPhy, who says it will take that time to develop a lower power, pluggable metro solution.
MultiPhy says the chip, the MP2100C, will be low power and, while it is not quoting a target power consumption, it is expected to be 15W. The goal is to fit the design within a 24W CFP optical module, a third of the power consumed by long-haul 100G coherent solutions.
One way the Israeli start-up will reduce the power consumption is to use a one-sample-per-symbol data rate combined with the maximum-likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE) algorithm.
MultiPhy has developed a patented technique that involves sub-Nyquist sampling. This allows the analogue-to-digital converters and the digital signal processor to operate at half the sampling rate, thus saving power.
To use sub-Nyquist sampling, a low-pass anti-aliasing filter is applied, but this harms the received signal. Using the filter, sampling at half the rate can occur and by applying the MLSE algorithm, the effects of the low-pass filtering can be countered. And because of the low-pass filtering, reduced bandwidth optoelectronics can be used, which reduces cost.
MultiPhy says it is working with several system vendor and optical module partners on the IC development. Shabtai expects the first products using the chip to appear in 2014 or 2015. The timing will also be dependent on the cost and power consumption reductions in the accompanying optical components.
Meanwhile, MultiPhy announced its multiplexer IC for 100G direct detection at ECOC in Amsterdam last month. The MP1011Q, a 40nm CMOS multiplexer, complements MultiPhy’s MP1100Q receiver ASIC that was unveiled a year ago and also implements the MLSE algorithm.
By Roy Rubenstein
See Also:
Press release: MultiPhy Announces Metro Coherent Development
Press release: MultiPhy Announces the Complete 100G Direct Detect MUX/DEMUX Chipset
Gazettabyte: Multiphy targets low power coherent metro chip for 2013
