Why is LWLG working on a 100 Gbaud modulator now?
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Posted On: 09/18/2019 8:32:05 AM
Why is LWLG working on a 100 Gbaud modulator now? Whatever happened to the 50 Gbaud device?
The 50 Gbaud modulator is LWLG’s current product under development and we continue to be very optimistic about its market appeal.
The 50 Gbaud and 100 Gbaud modulators share a common platform; the specific designs of each product will be optimized to 50 Gbaud or 100 Gbaud as appropriate.
The reason we’ve been talking about the 100 Gbaud recently is simply that we are excited that the platform’s materials, device and package approaches appear capable of working up to at least 100 Gbaud—at speed beyond the capabilities of incumbent technologies such as Si and InP. We believe that potential customers value the longevity of the polymer platform as they look at their own roadmaps beyond 50 Gbaud.
LWLG says it is addressing the 400G market so why is it stuck below 100G?
The 50G is the base rate of the modulator device that is actually used to make a 400G aggregated rate by integrating arrays of multiple devices together. This is an industry-standard approach to achieving 400Gbps. The 400Gbps is an important target market for LWLG. The target customer base also thinks in terms of product families with a base rate that supports multiple target application speeds at 1x, 4x and 8x that rate.
Why have we not heard about the customer sampling?
While we are actively now engaging with customers, the form of engagement includes many interactions and many types of interactions of which sampling is only one. We will continue to deepen our existing relationships and also will engage with more customers in many ways
Why have your plans changed?
We have not changed plans. Management has held the course it set at the ASM in May 2018. At the time, we outlined multiple goals and tasks. We have continued to pursue these goals. We stated that work would continue on the task of optimizing 50G device, including by soliciting technical feedback from customers. We also stated we would explore the capabilities of the platform to extend to 100G. Other stated goals that we continue to pursue include reliability testing .
Why are you targeting the 10 km and beyond market?
We believe that while our single mode modulator solutions will be competitive at 500 m to 10 km link distances, they will be ideally suited at greater than 10 km link distances. Between datacenter buildings, there is an increasing need for high performance interconnects over 10 km in reach. 5G mobile upgrade, autonomous driving and IoT are expected to increase the need for data stored and processed close to the end user in edge data centers. This application similarly requires optics capable of very high speeds and greater than 10 km reach
Companies like Arista and Ciena are also talking about 400G, are they competitors?
No, companies like Arista Networks and Ciena make networking equipment with 400G ports that can take optical pluggable transceivers. These transceivers contain the sort of optics that Lightwave Logic makes. So these companies would be customers, or customer's customers (if they buy their optics from a transceiver integrator like Lumentum or Finisar). Arista makes Ethernet switches which have 400G ports on the front panel. You can plug copper cables into these ports to connect equipment a few meters away. But if you need to go longer, you plug in an optical transceiver to convert to an optical signal. The transceiver is where a LWLG modulator would be. In a way, you can think of the pluggable transceiver as a high-end analog of the adapters that plug into laptops to convert from USB to USB-C or HDMI, etc. Ciena makes transport systems that similarly have ports that our optics would plug into.
https://lightwavelogic.com/TechnicalFAQ
Note under question #4 above "Why have your plans changed", the answer includes the statement,
Other stated goals that we continue to pursue include reliability testing .
Remember, the Technical FAQ's information was posted to the website in mid-2018, over 1 year ago now!
The 50 Gbaud modulator is LWLG’s current product under development and we continue to be very optimistic about its market appeal.
The 50 Gbaud and 100 Gbaud modulators share a common platform; the specific designs of each product will be optimized to 50 Gbaud or 100 Gbaud as appropriate.
The reason we’ve been talking about the 100 Gbaud recently is simply that we are excited that the platform’s materials, device and package approaches appear capable of working up to at least 100 Gbaud—at speed beyond the capabilities of incumbent technologies such as Si and InP. We believe that potential customers value the longevity of the polymer platform as they look at their own roadmaps beyond 50 Gbaud.
LWLG says it is addressing the 400G market so why is it stuck below 100G?
The 50G is the base rate of the modulator device that is actually used to make a 400G aggregated rate by integrating arrays of multiple devices together. This is an industry-standard approach to achieving 400Gbps. The 400Gbps is an important target market for LWLG. The target customer base also thinks in terms of product families with a base rate that supports multiple target application speeds at 1x, 4x and 8x that rate.
Why have we not heard about the customer sampling?
While we are actively now engaging with customers, the form of engagement includes many interactions and many types of interactions of which sampling is only one. We will continue to deepen our existing relationships and also will engage with more customers in many ways
Why have your plans changed?
We have not changed plans. Management has held the course it set at the ASM in May 2018. At the time, we outlined multiple goals and tasks. We have continued to pursue these goals. We stated that work would continue on the task of optimizing 50G device, including by soliciting technical feedback from customers. We also stated we would explore the capabilities of the platform to extend to 100G. Other stated goals that we continue to pursue include reliability testing .
Why are you targeting the 10 km and beyond market?
We believe that while our single mode modulator solutions will be competitive at 500 m to 10 km link distances, they will be ideally suited at greater than 10 km link distances. Between datacenter buildings, there is an increasing need for high performance interconnects over 10 km in reach. 5G mobile upgrade, autonomous driving and IoT are expected to increase the need for data stored and processed close to the end user in edge data centers. This application similarly requires optics capable of very high speeds and greater than 10 km reach
Companies like Arista and Ciena are also talking about 400G, are they competitors?
No, companies like Arista Networks and Ciena make networking equipment with 400G ports that can take optical pluggable transceivers. These transceivers contain the sort of optics that Lightwave Logic makes. So these companies would be customers, or customer's customers (if they buy their optics from a transceiver integrator like Lumentum or Finisar). Arista makes Ethernet switches which have 400G ports on the front panel. You can plug copper cables into these ports to connect equipment a few meters away. But if you need to go longer, you plug in an optical transceiver to convert to an optical signal. The transceiver is where a LWLG modulator would be. In a way, you can think of the pluggable transceiver as a high-end analog of the adapters that plug into laptops to convert from USB to USB-C or HDMI, etc. Ciena makes transport systems that similarly have ports that our optics would plug into.
https://lightwavelogic.com/TechnicalFAQ
Note under question #4 above "Why have your plans changed", the answer includes the statement,
Other stated goals that we continue to pursue include reliability testing .
Remember, the Technical FAQ's information was posted to the website in mid-2018, over 1 year ago now!
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