ANRITSU CORPORATION has added 100ZR coherent optical transceiver evaluation to its portable Network Master Pro MT1040A/MT1000A testers, enabling comprehensive communication performance testing for the next-generation 100ZR standard (QSFP28) as part of network verification, installation, and maintenance.
As a next‑generation optical transmission standard, 100ZR reduces power consumption and lower costs to facilitate deployment of advanced data centre interconnects (DCI) and access networks. Adding this new function streamlines quality verification for 100ZR optical transmission and supports construction of reliable networks.
Furthermore, the time-series visualisation function, which is already available for 100G Ethernet and OTU4 testing, can now be used for 100ZR as well. Combining these tests allows detailed verification of the coherent transmission quality of 100ZR transceivers.
Development background
The 100ZR/400ZR standard adopts coherent transmission technology in pluggable transceivers for optical networks. It is gaining attention as a technology that enables wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) with low power consumption and costs.
The 400ZR standard is preferred for DCI due to the high bandwidth required by the rapid spread of technologies such as generative AI and Cloud services. Conversely, 100G provides sufficient capacity for short-range communications like metropolitan area networks (MAN) in urban areas and access networks for enterprises and homes. Consequently, 100ZR adoption is anticipated due to its ability to integrate easily into existing 100G networks.
When deploying these coherent optical transceivers, it is essential to pre-verify interoperability with products from different vendors as well as transmission quality.
