Sliceable multi-QAM format SDN-powered transponders and ROADMs Enabling Elastic Optical Networks

Project Information

QAMeleon

Grant agreement ID: 780354

DOI

10.3030/780354

Project closed

EC signature date 20 October 2017

Start date 1 January 2018

End date 31 October 2022

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 7 999 558,75

EU contribution

€ 7 999 558,75

Coordinated by

EREVNITIKO PANEPISTIMIAKO INSTITOUTO SYSTIMATON EPIKOINONION KAI YPOLOGISTON
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - QAMeleon (Sliceable multi-QAM format SDN-powered transponders and ROADMs Enabling Elastic Optical Networks)

Reporting period: 2021-01-01 to 2022-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

At the start of QAMeleon, telecom operators struggled to keep pace with the soaring, increasingly volatile traffic traversing their networks. New video services set busy-hour internet on a steep growth curve reaching 36% CAGR, vastly outpacing average traffic riding on a hefty 25% CAGR. The growth of global Internet traffic became even more pronounced during the COVID-19 outbreak and recently, the vast adoption of emerging 5G and AI applications plays a pivotal role in scaling the capacity of metro/core networks beyond 1Tb/s per wavelength while reducing latency requirements.
QAMeleon aimed at a holistic solution towards the development of a new generation of SDN-programmable photonic components, modules and subsystems comprising a) sliceable bandwidth variable transponders (S-BVTs) capable of 128 Gbaud speed and b) ultra-fast, energy-efficient, integrated and scalable photonic switches (Fig. 1).

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

QAMeleon exploits high bandwidth InP modulator technology and synergies between high performance InP-DHBT electronics and low cost SiGe BiCMOS technologies for scaling to 128 Gbaud, as well as ultra-narrow linewidth lasers (NLLs) enabling high speed and long reach coherent transmission systems. Overall, 3 NLLs (Fig. 2), 2 packaged transmitter modules (Fig. 3) and 1 receiver module were delivered. The QAMeleon NLL showed superior performances (<100kHz linewidth, >19dBm output power) and tunability over the entire C-band. RF measurements for the transmitter indicated an improvement of the InP modulator bandwidth by 25 GHz when assembled together with the InP-DHBT gain peaking driver. All of the transmitter and receiver side photonics and electronics components were developed and measured. Key takeaway is the necessity for careful co-design of the photonics and the electronics components to achieve the high-speed specifications. The consortium developed additional electronics-only and optoelectronic chip-on-carrier subassemblies and validated the joint performances of the photonics and electronics components for a single carrier up to 100/112 Gb/s successfully.
With respect to the development of the switches QAMeleon exploits InP Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) technology platform for the development of polarization insensitive components and novel co-integration and assembly approaches based on a polymer electro-optic circuit board (EOPCB) as a host matrix. To this end, a fully packaged semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based nanosecond-scale 1x4 WSS was developed integrating InP PICs into the polymer board (Fig. 4). Polarization dependent gain lower than 2dB for entire C-band for the SOAs and λ dispersion for both polarizations for AWGs below 0.4nm was achieved. QAMeleon aimed at developing an additional optical switch based on the hybrid co-integration of InP waveguide front-ends (WFEs) with Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) technology reducing footprint and energy consumption by 20x and 11.5x respectively. During the project, 1x10 and 3x5 WFEs were successfully developed and evaluated both on InP and polymer platforms.
Novel DSP algorithms for the evaluation of high-speed signals based on advanced modulation and probabilistically shaped (PS)-M-QAM constellations have been also developed. Based on those, VPI added new modules and application examples in its VPIphotonics Design Suite. QAMeleon developed the full SDN framework interfacing its developed devices to a centralized SDN controller via the northbound and southbound SDN agent interfaces and controller plugins. NXW already exploits the SDN developments in their services. Laboratory evaluations and SDN system integration of the S-BVT and ROADM were carried out using the developed agents including field trials up to 96 Gbaud for the SBV-T agent and demonstration of a 2-degree ROADM node in the lab for the WSS-agents. End-to-end programmability over in-field links at TIM’s metro network was demonstrated using QAMeleon NLL and a commercial modulator (QAMeleon Tx module failed during the experiment, see D8.4). Despite the various challenges encountered it was possible to configure the NLL wavelength and the modulation format as well as the ROADM WSS ports via the developed SDN framework.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

QAMeleon, a 5-year project with ~8M EUR budget and a consortium of 16 partners, managed to bring innovation in the European telecom industry. QAMeleon was a very forward-looking project at the time it started which is still relevant in terms of market forecast, standardization and industrial trends, allowing all its partners to gain significant footing in the upcoming era of telecom networks.
At the project start (2017) 64 Gbaud transceivers were making their debut in the market, 90 Gbaud generation was an intermediate step that will be superseded towards 128 Gbaud transceivers with first products demonstrations in 2023. The new NLL design has been adopted within FNSR in several products of the company while the new packaging concepts including higher-speed rf package feedthroughs, 128Gbaud PCBA test board designs led to invest in the improvement of the company’s measurement capabilities and to setup first in-house 128Gbaud characterization systems towards the development of the 128Gbaud/800Gbps IC-TROSA. The InP modulator new highspeed approaches is the only technology for double-bandwidth while maintaining a low Vpi for low power consumption. On the electronics side, dual-channel linear InP DHBT drivers and TIAs are key components for the development of CDM and ICR for 96 and 130 Gbaud systems as well as analog multiplexers showing remarkable performances targeting future >1Tbps transceivers. The highspeed DAC design on SiGe BiCMOS technology has led to a new design of a CMOS-based DAC targeting both high speed (> 160 GSps) yet exploiting low power consumption. Finally, a combined transceiver solution based on the QAMeleon photonics and electronics technologies strengthened joint exploitation potential via technology transfer and joint product development among its partners.
The global market for ROADM WSS components is envisaged to be doubled by 2026 (reaching ~1.2 billion USD) with US and Japan being the main players in this field. Europe lacks the manufacturing capabilities and local design. QAMeleon brings the entire value chain into play, with InP polarization insensitive fabrication, and the polymer host board is key for integrating multiple InP PICs towards a compact densely integrated WSS solution which is compounded by the polarization insensitive development done within QAMeleon. The use of InP is enabled through components such as spot size converters for the interface of the InP PIC platform with other platforms (eg. EOPCB) and underpinned with validated and tested integration and packaging process flows. ALTER brings the entire integration and packaging expertise, thusly providing the entire value chain. QAMeleon approach is a way for Europe to have an integrated and port-scalable WSSs that will leverage the benefits of optical switching architectures in metro/core networks as well as datacenter interconnect applications. It is also imperative to add, that the cooperation of the relevant companies and experts in these fields (SMART, VARIO, ALTER) will lead to joint exploitation scenarios.
During QAMeleon, two patents were submitted; IMEC patent on Analog Interleavers and SMART patent on polarization insensitive SSCs.

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