64Gbaud PAM4 BER Test Solution Revealed

Anritsu announced that it will showcase its signal quality analyzer MP1800A series 64Gbaud PAM4 BER test solution at ECOC 2016, held in Düsseldorf, Germany, from September 19 to 21, 2016.

The exhibited products are also scheduled to include the G0374A 64Gbaud PAM4 DAC, which supports high-quality PAM4 signal generation at up to 64Gbaud, as well as 53.125Gbaud PAM4 transmission defined by the next-generation 400GbE standard. Additionally, 400GbE 53.125Gbaud BER measurements are supported using a BER measurement set with high input sensitivity. The G0374A 64Gbaud PAM4 DAC will go on sale starting in October 2016.

The explosive increase in data traffic is leading to investments to increase communication speeds between servers and network equipment. The next-generation 400GbE Ethernet standard uses PAM modulation methods to increase data transmission speeds per unit of time by increasing the symbol rate and adding more lines.

Although PAM4 signals are in a more advantageous position than NRZ*5 in doubling the amount of data transmitted per unit time, they have the disadvantage of requiring solutions for technical problems such as reducing power consumption and improving the S/N ratio. Therefore, these tests require high-quality signal sources and measurements of high input sensitivity.

Although Anritsu’s signal quality analyzer MP1800A series supports measurement functions for devices and optical modules compliant with the latest communication standards, the MP1800A series multi-channel pulse pattern generator (PPG) and error detector (ED) can be easily expanded to support BER measurements as well as high transmission speed NRZ and PAM4 methods by using the G0374A 64Gbaud PAM4 DAC and MP1862A 56G/64Gbit/s DEMUX.

The MP1800A signal quality analyzer is a plug-in modular bit error rate tester (BERT) capable of generating synchronized signals of up to 8 channels using a 32G multi-channel PPG module. The exhibited G0374A is an accessory for the MP1800A series and is used with the MU183020A 32Gbit/s multi-channel PPG to generate 64Gbaud NRZ/PAM4 signals through simple conversion of half-rate 32Gbit/s NRZ signals. It is also used with the MP1862A 56G/64Gbit/s DEMUX and the MU183040B 28G/32Gbit/s high-sensitivity ED to support BER measurements for high-transmission rate PAM4 signals.