Integrated Components and Solutions for High-Speed Short-Reach Data Transmission

Abstract

According to different transmission distances, application scenarios of a data center mainly include intra- and inter-data center optical interconnects. The intra-data center optical interconnect is considered as a few kilometers optical interconnect between servers and racks inside a data center, which accounts for nearly 80% of data traffic of a data center. The other one, inter-data center optical interconnect, is mainly applied in tens of kilometers data transmission among different data centers. Since data exchange in data centers generally occurs between many servers and racks, and a lot of transmitter and receiver components are required, optical interconnects become highly sensitive to component costs. In this paper, we firstly review the development and applications of mainstream transmitter components (e.g., VCSEL, DML, EML, MZM, and monolithic integrated transmitter) and receiver components (e.g., single-end photodetector, Kramers–Kronig receiver, Stokes vector receiver, and monolithic integrated receiver), which have been widely applied in short-reach transmission systems. Then, two types of integrated solutions including simplified detection scheme and transceiver integration scheme are presented in detail. Finally, we summarize and discuss the technological and component options for different transmission distances. We believe that monolithic integrated components, especially transceiver integration, will become a powerful solution for next-generation high-speed short-reach transmission systems.

Enhanced Performance of Intensity Modulation With Direct Detection Using Golay Encoded Nyquist Pulses and Electronic Dispersion Compensation

“…CD, although a linear effect, causes severe ISI in combination with DD, as linear effects turn nonlinear after square-law detection. The interaction of CD with square-law detection in IM/DD systems, typically under double side-band signal transmission, leads to power fading and substantial ISI, affecting adjacent symbols [5]. The Tx-to-Rx transfer function shows frequency-selective power fading dips as the linear component of the ISI, with nonlinear ISI arising from signal-to-signal beating interference (SSBI) and photodiode current power expansion [6].…”