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Anritsu Corporation has announced that the Network Master Pro 1040A now supports tests of 400GBASE-ZR standard optical modules facilitating low-cost data centre interconnects (DCI). In addition, it has also developed the optional Ethernet 4 x 100G N Port BERT and Ethernet 2 x 200G N Port BERT M1040A software solutions for breakout-type communications quality tests to lower DCI test workloads.

These upgraded functions supporting tests for transitioning to 400GBASE-ZR circuits and the introduction of breakout-type interfaces will help cut data centre construction and expansion costs.

Data centres are proliferating due to the spread of 5G services, teleworking, online teaching, and advances in digital transformation (DX), meeting social needs. Limits on available space, power-supply capacity, and air-conditioning can cause problems in scaling up the capacity of established medium-scale data centres, so increasing the number of distributed medium data centres can be more efficient than building new hyperscale data centres, which is driving demand for DCI between more medium-scale data centres.

Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) circuits provided by network operators are employed widely for DCI but are expensive. Recently, the market trend towards opening and disaggregation of WDM systems is driving demand for 400GBASE-ZR transceivers, helping cut circuit costs.

On the other hand, each data centre becomes more efficient at the same time. Although high-speed data centre interconnects (DCI) link separate data centres, the many low-speed distribution port connections occupy large data centre space. This space-saving issue is solved by using breakout-type interfaces.

For example, the 400GBASE-XDR4 standard utilises only one 400G port on the same panel, whereas four 100G ports were previously needed, which is four times more space-efficient than running four 100G cables. Moreover, less power is utilised because the number of laser elements is decreased from the four needed for each of the communications wavelengths used by the four 100G links to one laser used by the 400G link. However, introducing these breakout-type interfaces by data centres needs transceiver and equipment acceptance tests.

With these upgraded functions, the device is the ideal measurement solution for evaluating communications quality when data centres introduce this new DCI technology.