Periodic Reporting for period 2 - QAMeleon (Sliceable multi-QAM format SDN-powered transponders and ROADMs Enabling Elastic Optical Networks) Reporting period: 2019-07-01 to 2020-12-31 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project Telecom operators struggle to keep pace with the soaring, increasingly volatile traffic traversing their networks. New video services are setting busy-hour internet on a steep growth curve reaching 36% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), vastly outpacing average traffic that rides on a hefty 25% CAGR. While component and system vendors are well underway with the development of their 64 Gbaud portfolio to meet this skyrocketing demand, the enabling technologies to shift to the next gear of 128 Gbaud are urgently being sought. Meanwhile, telcos grapple with reduced profitability and suppressed margins, as end users demand higher bandwidth and better Quality-of-Service at the same price, requiring new concepts to make networks more efficient and dynamic. QAMeleon's vision is 4-fold: a) to scale the capacity of metro and core optical networks to the terabit per wavelength range, b) to improve utilization of resources based on the generation of multiple optical flows using flexible optical transponders, c) to enhance spectral efficiency via the use of novel modulation schemes and d) to automate the network via efficient control and network orchestration based on Software Defined Networking (SDN). In order to accomplish its vision, QAMeleon has the following technological objectives:1. To develop value-added transceiver components enabling the switch to 128 Gbaud: high bandwidth (>70 GHz) IQ Mach Zehnder (MZ) Modulators, 100 GHz coherent receivers and monolithic narrow linewidth lasers (NLLs) (<100 KHz).2. To exploit the analog signal interleaving concept and to develop >100 GHz digital and analog electronics ICs creating synergies between high speed InP-HBT and high resolution SiGe BiCMOS technologies.3. To develop ultra-fast, energy-efficient and scalable optical switching platform (polarization insensitive semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) & polarization insensitive arrayed waveguide gratings (AWGs)) and to combine it with a low-loss electro-optical circuit board (EOPCB) for the development of a compact 1x4 wavelength selective switch (WSS) targeting low latency applications.4. To combine InP photonic-integrated-circuits (PICs) (waveguide front-ends, multicast switches and polarization combiners/splitters) with Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) technologies towards shrinking WSS footprint and scaling the number of I/O ports and to develop a 1x24 hybrid WSS and a 8x24 transponder aggregator (TPA).5. To develop the building blocks throughout the SDN hierarchy (SDN agents, extensions to the SBI protocol, SDN controller pluggins and SDN controller applications) for interfacing the developed optical components and subsystems with the SDN control plane.6. To integrate its developed components into functional subsystems and to validate them into scalable lab and field trial demonstrators: QAMeleon will deliver a sliceable bandwidth-variable transponder (S-BVT) "white-box" demonstrator operating up to 3Tb/s, a flexible Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) "white-box" for metro-access applications empowered by the fast 1x4 WSS and, two flexGrid and high-port count ROADM "white-boxes" for metro/long haul networks incorporating the 1x24 WSS and 8x24 TPA switching engines, respectively. Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far During Period 2 QAMeleon made progress towards its objectives. Regarding the transceivers, good performances have been obtained for the majority of the SiGe and InP-DHBT electronics components. Selected narrow linewidth lasers chips were sent for assembly and packaged devices returned for evaluation and testing. Intense development on the high speed modulators took place and several wafers are under characterization. The coherent receiver chips showed good performances. The RF design of the transmitter and receiver package was finalized and sent to the supplier. It is noteworthy, that FG1 partners have put intense efforts in the preparation of simple test subassemblies for validating the interfaces between the various components and their compatibility in terms of combined performances with promising preliminary results obtained beyond 100 Gbaud.Moreoever, with respect to the switches development within QAMeleon, characterisation of polarisation independent components in InP from SMART’s platform has been concluded and were successful, while waveguide front ends (WFEs) in InP and polymer have been designed, taped-out, fabricated and also characterised. Design and tape-out of the 2nd dedicated run has also been concluded which includes wavefront ends (WFEs) with multiple input and outputs for a Hybrid TPA and Wavelength blockers (WBLs) for the final fast 1x4 WSS demonstrators. In the polymer platform the 3rd generation is fabricated along with numerous different polymer chips that were used for successful assembly. The assembly trials are progressing steadily in accordance to a testing schedule in close cooperation between the design, fabrication and assembly activities. Finally, regarding the Hybrid TPA using InP WFE, simulations in order to facilitate the assembly of a lens with the InP chip using polymer as host board have started.Finally, regarding SDN development and experiments, the partners developed the following SDN applications based on OPENDAYLIGHT controller: topology and provisioning app, path computation element (PCE) and graphical user interface (GUI). Significant work was also performed towards the development of the SDN agents for the expected QAMeleon devices. Finally, various SDN integration validation tests have been performed. Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far) QAMelon’s industry-driven consortium expands along the entire value chain and aims to foster the project’s carefully selected set of innovations into tangible market outcomes. Driven by user needs, the project aims to bridge innovative research in optical networking with near-market exploitation, achieving transformational impact in energy consumption and cost/bit. At the transponder side, QAMeleon will develop transceiver components enabling the switch to 128 Gbaud and at the same time bringing significant savings in footprint (>13×), energy/bit (10.4×) and cost/bit (>4.3×). At the ROADM side, QAMeleon will develop large-scale flex-grid wavelength-selective switches (1×24 WSS) and transponder aggregators (8×24 TPA), reducing footprint and cost/port by more than 40% and 28% respectively, with energy savings per ROADM node reaching 4×. Taking a leap beyond current technologies, the 1×4 WSS will enable savings in footprint, energy consumption and cost by 20×, 11.5× and 36% respectively. The consortium partners monitor industrial trends and technology standards and perform market analysis to align their exploitation strategies. The work within the project has already yielded tangible impact for QAMeleon partners. IMEC submitted a patent on Analog Interleavers. VPI added new modules and application examples in VPIphotonics Design Suite. QAMeleon vision
