Performance analysis of communication links based on VCSEL and silicon photonics technology for high-capacity data-intensive scenario

Abstract

To face the increased demand for bandwidth, cost-effectiveness and simplicity of future Ethernet data communications, a comparison between two different solutions based on directly-modulated VCSEL sources and Silicon Photonics technologies is carried out. Also by exploiting 4-PAM modulation, the transmission of 50-Gb/s and beyond capacity per channel is analyzed by means of BER performance. Applications for optical backplane, very short reach and in case of client-optics networks and intra and inter massive data centers communications (up to 10 km) are taken into account. A comparative analysis based on the power consumption is also proposed.

Flexible transmitters based on directly modulated VCSELs for next-generation 50G passive optical networks

“…Considering the target capacity of 50 Gb/s, the VCSEL energy consumption per bit is about 0.7 pJ, while the power consumption of the drivers supporting signal rates up to 56Gb/s is 230 mW. Hence, the total energy consumption per bit is about 5.3 pJ, that is pretty low with respect to the consumption of optical modules including standard DFB lasers and silicon photonics chips for external modulation [20]. On the other hand, it is worth noting that in case it is mandatory to stabilize the laser wavelength as to obtain SSB DMT modulation the power consumption of the transmitter nearly quadruplicates [21].…”

Disruptive Photonic Technologies for the Future Sustainable High-Capacity Metro Network

“…Nowadays, short-wavelength multi-mode VCSELs in GaAs are massively employed for high-speed data communications. The benefits of VCSELs in terms of cost, testability and consumption [6] are well known. To face the continuous demand of bandwidth and connection reach, such as in case of MAN, it is necessary to exploit VCSELs [7] characterized by: (i) Single-mode operation to limit the effect of modal and chromatic dispersion; (ii) Long-wavelength emission in the C band to exploit dense WDM; (iii) High bandwidth to achieve very high transmission rates.…”

Preliminary Assessment of Photonic Solutions Based on C-Band VCSELs for Multi-Tb/s Metro Networks

“…As an alternative multi-Tb/s capacity can be achieved employing massive photonic integration to develop a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) transmitter including multiple long-wavelength high-bandwidth vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) sources and SOI multiplexers [4,5]. VCSELS have been used for a long time in data communications [6] but, the exploitation of direct modulation (DM) with discrete multitone (DMT) modulation with single-mode devices [7,8] combined with multi-channel coherent receivers (CO-RXs) allows to realize a compact and cost-effective sliceable bandwidth and bitrate variable transceiver (S-BVT) able to adaptively load/manipulate the spectrum, enabling multiple Tb/s capacity [9].…”