Connecting data centers

The scale of data centers is expanding to provide optimal performance to meet increasing demands. Because of these demands and other factors such as real estate constraints, power consumption, and latency issues, data centers are shifting to a more distributed model. Therefore, the number of data center interconnects is increasing but the Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) system will require a high cost to achieve good performance.

Market Trends in Data Center

400GBASE-ZR (400ZR) and ZR+ technologies are expected to reduce the cost for DC operators because 400ZR and ZR+ do not need the installation of WDM systems including transponders. However, DC operators are required to guarantee the performance by themselves as the maintenance of several WDM components such as 400ZR and ZR+ transceivers become their responsibility.

Challenges in 400ZR/ZR+ Deployment

Challenge 1: Need to guarantee the performance on 400ZR/ZR+ by DC operators themselves

The deployment of 400ZR and ZR+ networks contributes to a reduction in costs, while DC operators need to guarantee the signal quality of their network equipment. For example, before introducing 400ZR and ZR+ transceivers which can switch an optical wavelength, DC operators should confirm that the optical wavelength keeps within the specific channel bandwidth. And then, the Ethernet frame test is required.

Challenge 2: Require easy and efficient installation procedure

DC operators need to establish a procedure that enables their engineers to easily operate and test transport performances in 400ZR and ZR+ optical networks. This is because DC operators themselves must construct their network and guarantee the quality of the communications in their networks.

Anritsu Data Center I&M Solutions

Solution 1: 400G Tester and Optical Spectrum Analyzer support for confirming the performance at transceivers, communication networks, client servers

Network Master Pro MT1040A directly connects to a 400ZR and ZR+ transceivers to provide a quality testing environment for DCI networks. In addition to the standard Ethernet frame testing to confirm the bit error rate and the number of TRx frame, the MT1040A can import the monitored values of the quality of communications and display them on the screen. And then, an optical spectrum analyzer MS9740B measures and confirms that the output power, wavelength, and signal bandwidth meet the required network specifications.

Solution 2: Efficient automated on-site testing using 400G Tester

The automatic test (SEEK) scenario for 400ZR on the MT1040A makes it easy to perform the test described in Solution 1above.
Since the automated testing using a scenario displays on-screen operation guidance, even operators with only minimum training can test easily without operation errors.
Using the automatic test scenario decreases the number of operations by 60% compared to manual testing.
In addition, using the test scenario facilitates accurate and efficient testing of 400ZR networks.