It’s time to celebrate a technological breakthrough in the optical networking space! Today, we want to highlight Precision OT, a Rochester-based leading provider of optical transceivers and related active/passive optical components with a footprint in the EMEA and South America.

The company has unveiled its new PAM4 Access Reach (P4AR™) transceiver, which is the only commercial 100G DWDM, QSFP28 switch pluggable product that does not require dispersion compensation modules (DCM) for transmission up to 40km. With this new transceiver, its first in-house design, Precision OT is meeting access network operator demand for enormous yet affordable performance boosts that are still compatible with existing network infrastructure.

What Does P4AR™ Mean for the Optical Networking Space?

Businesses and individuals are increasingly challenging today’s network operators to keep pace with their demands for increased bandwidth and speeds. By 2025, the IDC says that all of us will have generated a whopping 175ZB of data. Similarly, as reported in Capacity Media, 5G networks will carry half of our mobile data traffic also by 2025. Clearly, there is a strong need for operators to advance their capabilities while keeping capital and operating expenditures at reasonable levels.

However, if there is a way to describe a network operator’s typical experience with implementing 100G DWDM, it would have to be “constant trade offs”. Because of subscriber demand, operators have been looking to implement 100G DWDM for applications like point-to-point data center DWDM interconnects, 100G Ethernet Metro-Access over DWDM and other campus and enterprise links. Yet, no matter where they turn, whether to coherent and direct detect solutions, ColorZ or other 1310nm 100G products, network operators are always forced to forego one of the following specifications:

• Use of the QSFP28 form factor
• Ability to leverage DWDM
• Maximum capacity (i.e. 100Gbps vs 4Tbps)
• Transmission distance

Thanks to Precision OT’s Advanced Engineering Group, P4AR™ eliminates the need for such compromises, offering network operators an attractive alternative.

“We’re really excited to launch our P4AR™ product line, which was built specifically to meet the evolving needs of our customers. Compared to existing 100G and DWDM 100G solutions, P4AR™ is in another league altogether. While there are a few other products in this space, the P4AR, with its 4TB max capacity, 40km reach without external equipment, QSFP28 form factor, and bidirectional capabilities, is the only product that checks off all of the boxes. Because the QSFP28 form factor is so important to our customers, we wanted to develop a product that would leverage this standard while offering a combined reach and capacity that other offerings cannot match. It’s never been done before.” – Chris Page, CTO at Precision OT.

P4AR™ Benefits and Specifications

According to Precision OT, the P4AR™ transceiver will yield significant benefits for access networks bringing fiber to the edge, data centers connecting different facilities, service providers leveraging expensive dark fiber routes to join multiple sites and any other kind of network operator looking to future-proof their networks. Using P4AR™ enables network operators to eliminate the use of external transport equipment, amplifiers and filters for distances up to 40km.

P4AR key features include:

• 40km reach without the need for filters, amplifiers or other transport equipment
• QSFP28 PAM4, DWDM 40 channels, Fixed wavelength
• Applications
  • Point-to-point data center DWDM interconnects
  • 100G Ethernet metro-access over DWDM
  • Campus and enterprise links

“Never before have network operators and service providers had so much power in one type of transceiver. Our Advanced Engineering Group has worked incredibly hard to create a product that allows our customers to leverage 40 channels of 100G DWDM to handle up to 4Tbps of traffic simultaneously – all using existing switches, routers and QSFP28 ports. We believe this will be a game changer for the optical networking industry.” – David Halladay, President and CEO at Precision OT

To learn more about Precision OT, visit the company’s website at precisionot.com. Precision OT plans to offer initial demos of its P4AR™ transceivers in late Q1.