Can cheaper lasers handle short distances?
Optical technology is well established for long-haul communications, but the distances it serves are shrinking — especially in the data center. Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) already drive short fiber links. But efforts are underway to further scale them down to provide more connections through waveguides than fiber can provide. “We have seen the transition from long haul to metro-to-local area networks and then into the data center,” said Suresh Jayaraman, senior director fo