MOPA – Mobile Optical

Pluggables Alliance 2.0

Antonio Tartaglia
Expert Photonics Technologies

Fabio Cavaliere
Expert Optical Systems
 Agenda

●Welcome
●What is MOPA?
●The MOPA journey so far
●MOPA benefits
●From 5G to 6G
●What’s new in MOPA 2.0
●What’s around the corner
●Key take-aways
●Webinar topics
●Feedback poll

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 What is MOPA ?
● MOPA is a multi-lateral technical
paper describing all relevant high-level
requirements and optical solution
“Blueprints” for 5G transport
What?
● http://mopa-alliance.org
● Launched in 2021, MOPA has issued
version 2.0 of the technical paper on
When? September 19, 2022
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● The paper is written by 21 technical
experts from two RAN vendors (Ericsson,
Nokia) and three optical pluggable
vendors (Coherent, Lumentum,
Who? Sumitomo).
● Objectives:
• Increase the industry shared &
common view of the relevant optical
Why? solutions for 5G transport
• Making easier and less risky to plan
networks and products evolution
with improved R&D efficiency
 MOPA 2.0
96 pages of common vision on optics for mobile networks

What?

Who?

● High level requirements for optics to be used in mobile networks

● Description, with 19 “optical blueprints”, of the most important
solutions covering 5G use cases for different architectures
(DRAN, CRAN, vRAN)

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 The journey so far

● Version 2.0 of the MOPA paper was launched

When?
during ECOC2022 and is now available for
download and sharing

→ https://www.ericsson.com/en/mobile-transport/mopa
→ http://mopa-alliance.org

● MOPA technical sessions were hosted at OFC2021

(Jun 2021) , ECOC2021 (Sept 2021), OFC 2022
(March 2022), ECOC2022 (September 2022)

● More MOPA work is being planned:

stay tuned for the OFC2023 program (Mar 2023)

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 MOPA benefits: what’s in it for…
Why? ●Operators
• Clarity and global alignment
on the requirements for mobile
optical transport, supported
by the “right” set of optical
pluggables
• Better foresight for choosing and
protecting network technology
investments
• Fewer variants at higher volumes:
lower cost and
more stable supply
• Reduce risk for
interworking issues
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●System vendors
• Clarity and global alignment
on cost/performance and specific
requirements of optics for mobile
networks
• Clarity and coherence in setting
direction and expectations from
the pluggables industry
• Increased foresight (incl. volume
and timing indications). lower
product development
uncertainty/risk and faster time
to market
• Stable and sustainable global
technology supply chain
●Pluggable vendors
• Clarity and global alignment
on RAN technology evolution and
the needed optical transport
technology evolution
• Focusing their R&D investment
choices on the most important
use cases
• Stable and sustainable global
technology supply chain, better
return on R&D investment
 Technical paper scope
●Mobile transport: networks connecting radio access network 5G Core (5GC)
(RAN) equipment
● Radio Units (RUs), Distributed Units (DUs) and Centralized Units (CUs),
● Packet equipment (fronthaul gateways, cell site gateways etc), WDM Backhaul Transport
transponders
● Most important RAN deployment cases and best suited optical solutions
w. pluggables Central Unit (CU)
● Optical Pluggables: front-panel pluggable optical transceivers
SFP+, SFP28, QSFP28, etc. HLS
(High-level Transport
●The paper fulfills an unaddressed need Split)
● High-level general requirements for mobile optical solutions and
pluggables Distributed Unit (DU)
● Covers all the relevant mobile transport deployments cases, not only
specific needs LLS
(Low-level Transport
●MOPA reuse and feeds into other standardization and Split)
industry efforts
Radio Unit (RU)
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 The mobile transport network

5G led to the introduction of a new mobile transport ●Example of mobile transport network topology,
network segment, with its own peculiarities from ITU-T Recommendation G.8300
●Short distances, as in access networks
●High capacity and multiple topologies, as in WANs
●New advanced features, such as self-configurable
components and low latency
What does it imply for optical components?
●Potential product volumes are high, as in datacom
●Target cost is low, as in access
●Required features are demanding, as in WAN

5G requires new design perspectives to optical transport systems and networks

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 Mobile transport vision towards 6G

●Network accessible anywhere and always-on,

with guaranteed performance
●Programmable and dynamic network: create
and tear-down services in real time
●Challenges
●Flexible operation at low cost
●Extreme performance at low cost
●Coverage everywhere (high density RAN)
●Plug and play installation

Enabling optical technologies: WDM, integrated photonics, co-packaged transceivers, tunable optics, …
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 RAN optimized optical solutions
Characteristics Data center 5G DRAN LLS 5G CRAN LLS 5G Backhaul
Optics developed for datacom doesn’t always (intra-office)
meet requirements of the mobile transport Fiber distance ≤ 2 km ≤ 2 km ≤ 15 km ≤ 40 km
(20 km (80 km
network extreme cases) extreme cases)

● More detail in the Ericsson white paper on optimized

optical solutions fro mobile transport network Fiber supply Abundant Abundant Scarce Scarce
Data rates 100, 400 Gbps 25G 25G 25, 100G
Sync Not critical Very Critical Very Critical Critical
Optical components natively conceived for RAN
Lifetime 3-5 years 15 years 15 years 10-15 years
● accelerate the pace at which RANs are deployed
● decrease the relative cost of the optics as part of the total Environment Indoor, temp Outdoor, I-temp Outdoor, I- Outdoor, I-
RAN solution. controlled temp temp
(C-temp)
● facilitate the deployment of advanced services driving Service cost Low Very high Very high High
additional revenue
Deplyment Green field Brown field Brown field Brown field
model

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 Mobile Optical Blueprints: an example
C-RAN DWDM optical “bus” blueprint
A table with high-level, key requirements A solution illustration
15 km RU-DU DWDM bus Blueprint
Typical UC CRAN DU to radio unit (RU). Up to 15 km DWDM bus or horseshoe topologies with
one headend at DU side and multiple add/drop RU sites. Links up to 24 SFP+ pairs
using the same single trunk fiber.
− Flexible use of the available loss budget up to 17.8 dB. (*)
− Max number of added/dropped channel at each OADM: 6
− Number of OADMs : Up to 8. (**)
Distance Typ Min 0 km; Typ. Max: 15 km
Channel IL Max 17.8 dB to use for the fiber (max 6.8 dB @1.55 um), 0.6 dB per OADM pass and
3.0 dB for add/drop (up to 8 OADMs (**)). RU
RU RU
Chromatic Dispersion 270 ps/nm DU
0-15 km
Mode, wavelengths Dual fiber pluggables, single fiber trunk between MUX and OADM:
48 wavelengths @ 0.8nm/100GHz spacing. 17.8 dB
Cell site #N Cell site #1
Temp. Range/Class I-temp @ 1.55 um
(N is typ. 4-8) CRAN hub site

Lifespan 15 years
Data rates 10 Gb/s 25 Gb/s
Form factor SFP+ SFP28
FEC No Yes
Power Class PC4 (2.5 W) PC4 (2.5 W)
Pluggables codes 10G-15km-C-D-48-2-SFP+ 25G-15km-C-D-48-2-SFP28
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 MOPA 2.0
Now with four detailed appendices/annexes, covering gaps and seeding possible novel work
items in Standards Development Organizations

Detailed gap analysis between MOPA blueprints and

“closest applicable standards”

Describing how characteristics of pluggables can impact node

and link level cTE (constant time error) in a PTP network →
interest from ITU-T SG15 Q13

Laying down the foundations for possible future 50G WDM

standardization → possible future item for ITU-T SG15

Describing a common and simple way to implement “remote

management” of pluggables → now an active item at ITU-T SG15

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 The fronthaul solution space
impact of MOPA 2.0

RU P P RU

RU K K DU RU DU
T T
RU DU RU DU RU RU
Celsite

10G 25G 10G 25G 100G 10G 25G

Few hundred “LR lite” “LR lite” “BR2”

meters to 2km BiDi (1270nm/1330 nm) + remote digital management and (self)
tunability (Annex B)
48l 0.8nm DWDM 48l 0.8nm DWDM
BR10-BR20 BR10-BR20
C-band C-band
LR LR BiDi (1270nm/1330 nm) “BR20”
10km-20km DFB DFB/EML
BiDi 8l LWDM
6l 20nm CWDM 6l 20nm CWDM (4x25G) 12l 4.5nm LWDM
( O-band l’s)

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 What is around the corner ?
impact of MOPA2 .0

RU P P RU

RU K K DU RU DU
T T
RU DU RU DU RU RU
Celsite

50G 100G 50G 100G 400G 50G 100G

Few hundred
meters to 2km DR/FR “DR1”/“FR1” “BR2” “BR2”
25Gbaud PAM-4 50Gbaud PAM-4 25Gbaud PAM-4 50Gbaud PAM-4
50G WDM, (Annex A)

12l 4.5nm LWDM 12l 4.5nm LWDM

LR “LR1” BR10-BR20 “BR10-BR20” O-band 25Gbaud PAM-4 O-band 50Gbaud PAM-4
10km-20km 25Gbaud PAM-4 50Gbaud PAM-4 25Gbaud PAM-4
“Coherent lite”
50Gbaud PAM-4

C-band = ? C-band = ?

50G electrical serdes technology → 50G SFP56

100G electrical serdes technology → 100G SFP112

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 Appendix B: pluggables and sync accuracy
constant time error (cTE)

Pluggable “classes” extreme examples:

● “Class C.2” pluggables , meant for use in “Class C” nodes, consuming 2% of
the node cTE budget ( +/-0.2ns)
● “Class A.20” pluggable, meant for use in “Class A” nodes, consuming 20% of
the node cTE budget (+/- 10ns)

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 Annex A: remote monitoring
making ITU-T G.metrogreat again ….

Why: having a direct low speed How: details of the head end/tail end
communication channel between pluggables pluggable communication channel

●Paving the way for “remote monitoring” to

go from proprietary to mainstream
●Also foundational for “self tunable” WDM
What: the digital frame structure standardization
and the EEPROM memory map

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 Annex B: 50 Gb xWDM in mobile transport

Wishlist: 15 km, SFP56, I-temp

●Both O- and and C- band possible ODC/EDC
●PAM4 preferred (technology reuse=lower cost)
pending performance evaluation
Alternative or auxiliary technologies
● tunable dispersion compensating modules
● integrated electronic or photonic dispersion compensators
● dispersion tolerant modulation formats (duobinary, CAPS, ….)
CAPS3 Transmitter
All have pros and cons, evaluation in progress.
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 What is around the corner

• Indoor optical solutions for mobile

• Larger networks: amplified, coherent systems
• “Beyond 100G” data rates
• On-board optics
• Very high temp optics
• “Coherent light”
• Tunable filters
• ….

Ongoing activity to enable wider participation and formally liaise with

Standards Development Organization (SDO's)

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 Take aways
●MOPA has established a common industry vision on the most important
optical solutions supporting 5G rollouts

●With version 2.0 of the technical paper, MOPA is covering unaddressed

standardization needs for optics in RAN
●Pluggables remote monitoring
●Impact of pluggables on PTP accuracy (cTE)
●Initial sketch of possible 50G WDM blueprints

●“Around the MOPA corner” there is a palette of novel solutions to enable

the journey from 5G to 6G networks

●The MOPA journey goes on: stay tuned!

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 Q&A

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 Take aways
●MOPA has established a common industry vision on the most important
optical solutions supporting 5G rollouts

●With version 2.0 of the technical paper, MOPA is covering unaddressed

standardization needs for optics in RAN
●Pluggables remote monitoring
●Impact of pluggables on PTP accuracy (cTE)
●Initial sketch of possible 50G WDM blueprints

●“Around the MOPA corner” there is a palette of novel solutions to enable

the journey from 5G to 6G networks

●The MOPA journey goes on: stay tuned!

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 Webinar topics
Planned Topics 2023

Energy efficiency
Date Topics Q4
Fronthaul selection guidelines
2022-10-20 MOPA Maximize capacity for long microwave hops
Demystifying SDN:
2022-11-03 Slicing Transport automation and Traffic control
MIMO
Maximizing capacity in
2022-11-17
spectrum limited networks Preventive maintenance for opto using AI

2022-12-01 Release 22:Q3 and Q4 Security

FWA

… please suggest!
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 … the RAN Transport
Community page
●All recorded webinars on-demand
●Other transport webinars:
●5G Transport Summit
●Microwave Outlook
●Link
●This page can include
●Webcast
●Video
●Document
●Webpage
●Image

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 Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2022

Content:
●Backhaul capacity evolution
●Spectrum in a dynamic market
●Maximizing capacity in spectrum-limited networks
●How to reduce power consumption in microwave
networks
●The rural challenge for 5G backhaul

Links:
●Ericsson Microwave Outlook main site
●Download Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2022
●Register for the webinar on October 27
●Subscribe for coming releases
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