ABSTRACT
In the past, standardization in the optical industry was driven mainly by short-reach metro/aggregation applications, where optical performance is not a differentiator. The standardization of coherent interconnects has been making significant progress. The momentum behind these efforts continues to grow as it becomes clear that standardization of coherent technologies can be achieved. Around seven digital signal processing (DSP) solutions from different companies are commercially available. Standardization will eventually lead to improved interoperability and predictable performance and allow operators to utilize optical fiber infrastructure and more to efficiently meet future bandwidth demand. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) continues to develop a set of standards to define the physical and data link layers of optical Ethernet, the latest activity being a short-reach coherent optical standard. Another standardization effort from the optical industry is open reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADMs), which defines ROADM interoperability specifications.
