How did we go from 1G to 400G? The history of pluggable optics, a conversation with Ray Nering 4/4

Cisco Podcast Network

Have you ever wondered why pluggable optics exist? Have you ever wondered what acronyms like QSFP, LR4, FEC, and PAM4 actually mean? In this episode I continue my conversation with my colleague Ray Nering. He explains to me how a lot of these came to be, starting from the days of 1Gb GBIC all the way up to today's 400Gb QSFP-DD. This is the final part of a four-episode conversation with Ray. In this episode we get into complexity trends and coherent optics. Pat Chou, Cisco Optics Product Manager Ray Nering is a colleague of mine in the Cisco Optics product management group and over the years has held senior management positions at other companies in the optics space, such as AT&T Microelectronics, Lucent, JDSU, Agere, Optium, and Lightwire. Additional resources Cisco Optics blogs: https://blogs.cisco.com/tag/ciscoopticsblog (subscribe at https://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=CiscoOpticsBlog ) Cisco Optics YouTube playlist: http://cs.co/9008BlQen Cisco Optics landing page: cisco.com/go/optics Timestamps 2:07 PAM4 09:37 100G lambda MSA defines optical interfaces 12:37 Complexity trend accelerates 14:36 Pluggable coherent modules for data center interconnects 20:25 CMIS is needed for managing complicated modules Music credits Sunny Morning by FSM Team | https://www.free-stock-music.com/artist.fsm-team.html Upbeat by Mixaund | https://mixaund.bandcamp.com