Abraham is chairman and chief executive of Adolite, a former co-founder and chairman of PayEase, and CEO of silicon valley communications.He also worked in apple's r&d department.Paul, executive vice President of Adolite, has a wealth of experience in optical interconnection, silicon photonics, storage and nano/ microoptical systems.He was the dean of optics and photonics at the national university of the United States.
Industry Outlook: what are the biggest challenges facing data center operators?
Abraham Jou: today, the development of new technologies such as 5G, the Internet of things, virtual reality, driverless cars and other emerging technologies has put exponential pressure on the data infrastructure.The market for optical connections is seen doubling every 8 to 10 months.By 2025, research firm IDC predicts that global data will grow to 163 zeros!That's 10 times the amount of data in 2016.
Part of the reason for the data explosion is consumer demand for applications with larger bandwidth requirements.People want to watch or download streaming video on the Internet, especially on their mobile devices.They want to quickly access data stored in the cloud and provide realistic images for 3D games, movies, and more and more real-time content.A year ago, the Wall Street journal reported that 400 hours of video was uploaded to YouTube every minute.
As data providers try to meet users' needs, they face challenges in design and extension.The existing transceiver design is complex, because the rigid multi-layer circuit board, multiple lenses, optical fiber alignment problem, complex assembly, its production process is time-consuming and error-prone.
Suppliers rely on their supply chain solutions to solve problems, but they often run into bottlenecks.Its production capacity and business growth have been hampered by the inability of manufacturers of optical communication products to produce sufficiently advanced optical interconnection products.
Industry Outlook: how do data providers innovate to meet customer needs?
Abraham Jou: today, it is a trend for large cloud operators to expand their operations, and these operators are expanding their facilities.More and more enterprises to the cloud computing providers to store it outsourcing cost savings, so we have found more server traffic moving from one data centre to another data center, rather than from a data center server directly transferred to the user.
As they seek to gain more optical bandwidth, the cloud computing data center is pushing the next generation of data center technologies.At the design level, this means that they must integrate many optical functions into an integrated solution.They are looking for a breakthrough in a 100G Ethernet product for data center interconnection (DCI).
According to a survey by LightCounting, in 2016, Ethernet receivers accounted for 75 percent of all optical devices purchased by cloud computing companies, and these companies will remain major buyers in 2022.In their development and evolutionary path, some of the larger companies jumped from 100G Ethernet to 400G, skipping 200G.
Industry Outlook: how do optical interconnect technologies and products evolve to meet greater demand?
Paul Wu: optical interconnections are critical to increasing bandwidth in an economically efficient way, and IHS Infonetics expects the market for data communication optical transceivers to exceed $2.1 billion by 2019.To achieve this achievement, must carry out innovation, speed up the production of data center products, improve the production capacity is very important to remove supply chain issues, so the supplier can according to the rapidly expanding its ability to each user's demand.
New progress is being made in optical design, structure and process.For example, we are adopting a new manufacturing technology, the technology using the flexible printed circuits (FPC), optical reflector and polymer waveguide is directly installed on the flexible printed circuit board (PCB).This simplified physical structure is more flexible and routable at the board level, which can help streamline the production process compared to the traditional approach.
It also enables us to speed up production and product delivery to data providers.In the end, the development of manufacturing industry can help the industry realize the road map from 100G to 400G Ethernet to meet the innovation needs of customers and keep pace with the demand.
Industry Outlook: what is needed to move the Industry to 400G Ethernet?
Paul Wu: as we strive to achieve 400G Ethernet and above, the industry is studying airborne optical devices as a promising solution.The technology relies on high-speed and high-density platforms, such as mass-produced optical devices.
The board optical fiber module alliance (COBO) is a standard organization that is developing the interchangeable optical module specifications that can be installed on PCB.Changing physical infrastructure by making optical modules on top of the current framework can help overcome current limitations and exceed 400G.
Of course, it is vital that the manufacturing industry is producing fast enough.Otherwise, suppliers will continue to meet their current supply chain bottlenecks.Therefore, manufacturers must combine innovation with precise execution, ideally in industry 4.0.
Industry Outlook: what advice do you have for the data center vendors to take measures to stay competitive?
Abraham Jou: we communicate with the big data center providers who are facing these challenges, and we know that there is a race going on.Providers are using aggressive plans to map their routes to achieve efficient data center capacity growth.Standardization of interoperable modules is also critical with the adoption of upcoming industry standards, such as standardized development of COBO.
The rapid expansion will require suppliers to provide new technologies for the supply chain to simplify design and improve performance.Manufacturing industry innovation is catching up, so we believe that those who are receptive to new challenges and ready to move forward the data provider will gain competitive advantage, and be able to seize market opportunities in the first place.
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