Capacity and Flexibility Improvement of Traffic Aggregation for Fixed 5G:Key Enabling Technologies,Challenges and Trends

As the emergence of various highbandwidth services and the requirements to support 5G/Wi-Fi 6 wireless networks,the next generation fixed networks,i.e.F5G,are expected to be realized in the 5G era.F5G is endowed with new characteristics,including ultra-high bandwidth,all-optical connections and optimal service experience.With the prospect of optical-to-everywhere,optical technologies are used for mobile front-haul,mid-haul,and back-haul.Optical access networks would play an important role in F5G to support radio access network and fixed access network.Low-latency PON is a key for cost effective-haul traffic aggregation.In terms of signal transmission,intensity modulation directdetection(IM-DD)is a promising scheme due to its simple architecture.The fundamental challenge associated with direct-detection is the disappearance of the transmitted signal’s phase.In access network,the flexibility and low latency are the two key factors affecting service experience.In this article,we review the evolution of PONs and the challenges of current PONs in detail.We analyze key enabling digital signal processing(DSP)techniques,including detection linearization for direct-detection and simplified coherent detection,adaptive equalizers,digital filer enabled flexible access network and low-latency inter-ONU communications.Finally,we discuss the developing trends of future optical access networks.

Co‑packaged optics(CPO):status,challenges,and solutions

Due to the rise of 5G,IoT,AI,and high-performance computing applications,datacenter trafc has grown at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 30%.Furthermore,nearly three-fourths of the datacenter trafc resides within datacenters.The conventional pluggable optics increases at a much slower rate than that of datacenter trafc.The gap between application requirements and the capability of conventional pluggable optics keeps increasing,a trend that is unsustainable.Copackaged optics(CPO)is a disruptive approach to increasing the interconnecting bandwidth density and energy efciency by dramatically shortening the electrical link length through advanced packaging and co-optimization of electronics and photonics.CPO is widely regarded as a promising solution for future datacenter interconnections,and silicon platform is the most promising platform for large-scale integration.Leading international companies(e.g.,Intel,Broadcom and IBM)have heavily investigated in CPO technology,an inter-disciplinary research feld that involves photonic devices,integrated circuits design,packaging,photonic device modeling,electronic-photonic co-simulation,applications,and standardization.This review aims to provide the readers a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art progress of CPO in silicon platform,identify the key challenges,and point out the potential solutions,hoping to encourage collaboration between diferent research felds to accelerate the development of CPO technology.