Anritsu announces release of 53 Gbaud upgrade for PAM4 optical signal analysis

03/09/2018

BERTWave MP2110A Sampling Oscilloscope shortens test times and cuts production costs for 100/200/400G optical modules and devices

Luton, United Kingdom – September 3, 2018 – Anritsu Corporation, a global provider of innovative test and measurement solutions for advanced and converged networks, has announced that from the 3rd of July there will be firmware downloads available for the BERTWave MP2110A Sampling Oscilloscope which will increase its PAM4 analysis function from 26 Gbaud to 53 Gbaud. As well as featuring both high-sensitivity and high-speed measurements, with this release the MP2110A will now support development and production-line inspection of next-generation QSFP-DD optical transceivers expected to be deployed in data centers.

As data traffic increases due to the spread of flat-rate video streaming and other cloud services, managing this growth requires the deployment of transmission-equipment interfaces that exceed speeds of 100 Gbit/s. New generation 200/400 GbE interfaces start to appear, and use PAM4 technology instead of the older NRZ technology. Although current optical modules such as CFP8s use 26-Gbaud PAM4 optical signals, future mass-produced QSFP-DD and OSFP modules will use 53-Gbaud PAM4 optical signals.

The BERTWave MP2110A is an all-in-one measuring instrument with built-in multi-channel Bit Error Rate Tester (BERT) and Sampling Oscilloscope, supporting bit error rate (BER) measurements, Eye Mask tests, Eye pattern analyses, high sampling speed of 250 kSample/s and low-noise (3.4 μW) high-sensitivity O/E interface . The BERT and Sampling Oscilloscope are required instruments for evaluating optical modules used by optical communications systems.

As well as NRZ technology, the MP2110A also supports PAM4 signal measurements including TDECQ, which enable all-in-one quality evaluations of optical modules at speeds from 25 to 400 G. In addition, the MP2110A, thanks to its high-speed measurement and PAM4 analysis, will play a key role in improving optical module production-line productivity. Moreover, adding 53 Gbaud support for quality evaluation of next-generation optical modules helps cut capital equipment renewal costs.

The 53 Gbaud analysis function added by this upgrade is included in the PAM4 signal analysis software option (MP2110A-095).