800G test from Keysight Technologies validates next-gen data centres
Keysight Technologies has released 800G test solutions for validating electrical and optical interfaces to speed development of next-generation data centre technologies, including what is believed to be the first 100Gbits per second transmitter and receiver pre-conformance test.
Service providers and data centre operators are seeking 800G technology to meet a growing demand in network capacity at the desired cost and power consumption targets. This is primarily driven by data-hungry applications such as video conferencing, streaming and digital entertainment, which are delivered via wireless technologies such as 4G, 5G and Wi-Fi.
Electrical and optical analysis enables an 800G ecosystem, consisting of optical components, chipset, switch and semiconductor IC vendors, as well as system integrators, to speed design, development, test and validation across the entire design cycle.
Dr. Joachim Peerlings, vice president of network and data centre solutions at Keysight Technologies, said: “Access to a portfolio of 800G test solutions across physical and protocol layers, from simulation to design, validation, conformance and manufacturing, enables our customers to verify interoperability and simplify testing across the workflow using common, uniform interfaces and software automation.”
Keysight Technologies’ 800G test solutions include a 100Gbits per second electrical conformance test. It is believed to be first pre-conformance test solution for validating both transmitter and receiver electrical signalling input interfaces according to the 100Gb/s standard currently under development by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF).
It also includes Keysight’s Infiniium UXR-Series real-time oscilloscope or digital communication analyser (DCA), 64Gbaud high performance bit error rate tester (BERT) and pre-conformance test cases for simplified 100, 200, 400 and 800Gbits per second electrical input interface testing, resulting in accurate and repeatable test results.
There is pre-silicon design verification, combining Keysight’s IxVerify software, which generates network traffic, with the Synopsys ZeBu Server 4 emulation system to accelerate pre-silicon design verification of SoCs and 800G Ethernet designs.
This delivers consistent test methodologies, configurations and scripts to accelerate testing from pre-silicon to post-silicon device validation.
A 200Gbits per second option is designed for 800G research and pathfinding. It combines an arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) and an Infiniium UXR-Series real-time oscilloscope to characterise the digital interface including error detection up to 224Gbits per second.
To extend testing into the optical domain, developers can use Keysight’s 60GHz optical-to-electrical (O/E) converter.
The physical layer test system (PLTS) establishes signal integrity measurements and performs data post processing of high speed interconnects, such as cables, backplanes, PCBs and connectors.
It supports de-embedding techniques on a common platform, enabling users to optimise performance margins in 800G channel designs.
According to Keysight, the components are designed to allow users to fully explore design margins, while addressing design and conformance validation challenges in an 800G transceiver market, which is expected to reach $2.5 billion by 2029 according analyst, CIR.
