Perspectives for Co-Packaged Optics in Radio Access Networks

Co-packaged optics (CPO) is an emerging technology providing optical interconnections with a bandwidth density of the order of Terabit/s per square millimeter. All current development and standardization efforts focus on data centers, to connect very high-capacity switches while improving energy efficiency and footprint compared to designs based on front-panel pluggable optics. We think CPO will have an important role also in 6G networks, to meet the demand for high capacity at low energy consumption. This paper illustrates use cases and requirements for CPO natively designed for radio applications and outlines standardization and industrialization paths