Bandwidth requirements to support the needs for training and inference in next-gen AI networks are pushing the industry to new heights. The demand for optical interconnects in scale-up and scale-out networks is unprecedented and requires the industry to increase output by a factor of ten in the next few years.

The emergence of Advanced Photonics Coalition (APC) Portfolio of Standards and other MSAs provide guidance with regards to form factors and signaling format. APC is at the core foundation providing essential cross-ecosystem cooperation for best practices through specifications for methods-of-implementation, designing for high volume manufacture at low cost, and how testing products for reliability.