Coherent Optical Communication for Data Center Interconnects
Summary
Coherent optical communication has emerged as the prime candidate to meet the burgeoning demand for high-capacity, low-latency links between data centres. By exploiting both the amplitude and phase of light, coherent systems can achieve superior spectral efficiency and sensitivity compared with conventional intensity-modulation direct-detection schemes. The integration of advanced modulation formats such as quadrature phase shift keying and higher-order quadrature amplitude modulation, coupled with polarisation-division multiplexing, enables data throughput beyond terabits per second on a single fibre pair. Recent progress in silicon photonic integration, low-power digital signal processing architectures, and novel frequency-stabilised light sources has further reduced power consumption and footprint, rendering coherent transceivers viable for the short-reach (<10 km) distances typical of intra- and inter-data centre links. This confluence of technologies supports the global infrastructure that underpins cloud computing, hyperscale networking and emerging applications in artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.
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Coherent Optical Communication for Data Center Interconnects publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in coherent optical communication for data center interconnects across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Coherent detection: A technique that retrieves both amplitude and phase information of an optical signal by mixing it with a local oscillator.
Quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK): A modulation format encoding data in four distinct phase states, doubling the spectral efficiency compared with binary phase shift keying.
Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM): A multi-level modulation scheme combining amplitude and phase variations to encode multiple bits per symbol.
PAM (pulse amplitude modulation): A modulation method in which signal amplitude takes on multiple discrete levels to carry information.
Digital signal processing (DSP): Electronic algorithms for compensating impairments such as chromatic dispersion and polarisation mode dispersion in coherent systems.
Forward error correction (FEC): Redundant coding applied to data to enable the correction of bit errors introduced during transmission.
References
- A Monolithic O-Band Coherent Optical Receiver for Energy-Efficient Links. IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (2023).
- Beyond 1Tbs Intra-Data Center Interconnect Technology: IM-DD OR Coherent. Journal of Lightwave Technology (2019).
- Frequency-Stabilized Links for Coherent WDM Fiber Interconnects in the Datacenter. Journal of Lightwave Technology (2020).
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