Higher-speed PONs based on data center technology and optics [Invited]

Data center interconnects are currently the fastest growing market for optical interconnect technology and innovations. Data centers must upgrade their infrastructure regularly to keep up with increasing bandwidth demand from digital services. Successive Ethernet generations based on intensity-modulated direct-detection progressed to 50 GBd per lane and will reach 100 GBd per lane before the end of this decade. Also, the continued reduction in complexity, power consumption, and cost of coherent technologies will eventually lead to adoption of it in short-reach coherent in the intra-data center, which will further drive volumes of low-cost coherent technologies. Passive optical networks (PONs) depend mostly on the availability of high-volume, low-cost components. In this paper we will review the benefits as well as challenges to overcome in adoption of the Ethernet data center ecosystem as a low-power, cost-effective technology for next-generation time-division-multiplexed PONs. (c) 2024 Optica Publishing Group