Upgraded Sampling Oscilloscope MP2110A Clock Recovery Function | Electronics Maker

Reduces 64GFC (64G Fibre Channel) PAM4 Optical Module Production-Line Costs

25/02/2022

Anritsu Corporation (President Hirokazu Hamada) is launching its new 25G Clock Recovery Range Expansion Option (MP2110A-059) on February 25 to upgrade the BERTWave MP2110A sampling oscilloscope clock recovery rate required for testing optical signals.

This option facilitates optical-waveform tests of Fibre Channel*1- compliant 64GFC PAM4*2 optical modules*3 in a clock-signal-free test environment. The upgrade helps assure the quality of 64GFC PAM4 optical modules while simplifying the production line configuration to cut costs.

Development Background

The number of datacenters is growing worldwide to cope with the huge increases in data traffic volumes caused by the 5G rollout and spread of IoT. The many optical connections between intra-data-center network racks, servers, and storage use different optical transmission speeds and interfaces. Since standardization of the 64GFC interface for use by datacenters has been completed, this interface is expected to enter widespread use from 2022. Anritsu’s released MP2110A-059 function upgrade option supports tests of these 64GFC optical modules to meet demand from this growing market.

Moreover, introduction of 400GbE is driving a switch from NRZ*4 to PAM4 modulation, while Fibre Channel is also similarly changing from 64GFC to PAM4. This technology paradigm shift requires higher-accuracy testing because PAM4 modulation has smaller performance margins than NRZ.

Higher-accuracy testing requires clock recovery to extract the clock signal from the measured signal and Anritsu has developed this 64GFC clock recovery function based on its earlier support for 400GbE technology to help support more accurate measurement.

Product Outline

The all-in-one MP2110A BERTWave combines a bit-error-rate tester (BERT) with a sampling oscilloscope for evaluating communications waveforms. The multi-channel sampling oscilloscope is ideal for configuring a versatile, cost-effective, customized test environment to improve production-line throughput using parallel all-at-once measurement with four high-speed channels.

Click to learn more about the MP2110A

Target Markets and Applications

•  Target Markets

Optical module and optical transmission equipment manufacturing markets

•  Applications

Evaluating PHY layer performance of 25G to 400G optical modules, optical cables, and configuration parts used by datacenters, core networks, 4G and 5G mobile backhaul, and 5G mobile fronthaul

• Transmission Standards: Ethernet, eCPRI/RoE, CPRI, SDH/SONET, OTN, InfiniBand, Fibre Channel

• Optical Modules: CFP2/4/8, SFP28, SFP56, QSFP28, QSFP56, OSFP, QSFP-DD

• Cables: Active Optical Cable（AOC）, Direct Attach Cable（DAC）

• Devices: TOSA, ROSA, High-Speed Optical Engine, PHY, Driver IC

Technical Terms

*1 Fibre Channel

One transmission method used between computers and peripheral accessories: common standard for Storage Area Network (SAN) with interconnectivity between high-performance servers and storage devices. Standardization completed from 1GFC (1 Gbps) to 64GFC (28.9 Gbaud) so far.

*2 PAM4

Abbreviation for Pulse Amplitude Modulation which improves transmission capacity using amplitude modulation; PAM4 transfers 2 bits of data in one time slot using 4 levels.

*3 Optical Module

Hot-pluggable optical transceiver used for high-speed data communications. Optical transceivers perform O/E and E/O conversion with the side connected to the equipment transmitting electrical signals and the side connected to optical fiber transmitting optical signals.

*4 NRZ

Abbreviation for Non-Return to Zero digital signal transmission method.