SWDM Industry Consortium Created

A new industry consortium focused on the definition of optical specifications and the adoption of short-wave wavelength division multiplexing (SWDM) standards has been formed, geared toward data center and enterprise campuses that deploy duplex multimode fiber (MMF).

The SWDM Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) has published its first two standards, defining optical specifications for four-wavelength SWDM to transmit 40-Gbps and 100-Gbps Ethernet signals. The specifications support transmission over duplex OM3, OM4 and OM5 MMF types. Maximum reaches vary from 75 to 440 m, depending on data rate and fiber type. In the future, SWDM technology could be leveraged to enable 200-, 400- and 800-Gbps Ethernet traffic on MMF cabling as well.

The founding members of the SWDM MSA are CommScope, Finisar Corp., Lumentum, Hisense International Co. Ltd., OFS and Prysmian. The SWDM MSA is affiliated with the SWDM Alliance, an industry group dedicated to the adoption of SWDM technology in data centers. The alliance also includes Anritsu Corp., Corning Inc., Dell EMC, H3C, Huawei Technologies Co., Juniper Networks Inc., Panduit, Suruga Seiki Co. Ltd. and Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Co. Ltd.