In our data-driven economy, the data center has become a competitive advantage.
Whether the data center supports the business model or whether it is the business model, the data center plays an essential role in business today. Just having data isn’t enough. To fully support the business and its customers, that data needs to be accessed, stored, and moved at extremely high speeds. For years, 10 Gbps was the de facto rate in the data center, followed by 25 Gbps and 40 Gbps. Today, 100 Gbps operation is becoming mainstream, even as the technology for 200 Gbps and 400 Gbps transport is the focus of widespread development.
A number of techniques can be used to achieve 100G transmission in the data center. Several types are commercially available for deployment today. Others, like single-lambda 100G, are still in the final phases of development. Long-term, the latter option is of key importance, not just for simplifying 100G deployment but also for easy scalability to 200G and 400G...