DSPs Go the Distance: Marvell's Strategy for Connecting Carriers, Clouds – Futurum Tech Webcast

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast – Interview Series, The Futurum Group's Ron Westfall is joined by Samuel Liu, Senior Director, Product Line Marketing at Marvell Technology, a top-tier semiconductor company. A new guest on this show, and astutely shares his insights and perspective on the direction of the optical transport market segment and why Marvell's coherent DSP portfolio is driving new breakthroughs. 

Ron and Samuel focus on the topic of coherent digital coherent processor (DSP) innovation and why it is vital to enabling cloud providers and carriers to replace traditional transport equipment for improved scalability and total cost of ownership (TCO). Marvell's new Orion coherent DSP offering provides twice the bandwidth over current DSPs for pluggable modules, Orion can increase the performance and reach of pluggable module-based connections up to ~2,000 km. Plus, Orion broadens the opportunity to deploy coherent DSP-based modules in more use cases, including 800 Gbps metro networks, 600 Gbps regional networks, 400 Gbps long-haul networks and 800 Gbps data center interconnects (DCI). 

Their conversation examined the following key topics:

• How the Marvell's Orion coherent DSP solution supports DCI over long distances including up to 2,000 kilometers. 

• The key distinctions between the cloud and service provider use cases such as bolstering metro, regional, and long-haul capabilities for service providers and strengthening DCI capabilities in areas such as more availability zone flexibility for cloud providers. 

• Why pluggables were developed and how ZR/ZR+ innovation is helping to drive pluggable module innovation.

• How service providers are driving demand through rapid upgrades to 400G+ routers as well as how data centers are fueling demand through upgrades to 51.2T capabilities. 

• Why AI is playing a key tole due to massive demand for AI training in centralized locations and AI inference across distributed, regional data centers requiring DCI advances to ensure application optimization. Plus, the emerging role of virtual hyperscalers. 

• A look into what's next for Marvell's Orion portfolio and coherent DSP technology including the expectation of greater experimentation by service providers and cloud providers.