Under the new economic normal background of "internet plus" where cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things, mobile Internet and social networks are booming, data centers have evolved into connection centers, traffic centers and information application centers in the world.

With the data center playing an increasingly important role in the network, it puts forward a series of new demands for connection and optical interfaces.

① Large connection and bandwidth: With the popularity of emerging applications such as Internet of Things and 4K video, there is a huge demand for the number and bandwidth of cloud network connections.  The interconnection between large data centers requires large-scale high-speed optical interconnection and interfaces.

(2) Fast, instant and on-demand bandwidth provision: The high competitiveness of Internet enterprises makes the provision time of the underlying network bandwidth almost demanding, and the existing rigid network is difficult to meet;

(3) High speed and low time delay: Some Internet applications require very low information transmission time delay. For example, the disaster tolerance requirements for car networking and data centers are less than 10ms, otherwise personal safety or important data loss will be caused.  The high-frequency trading of financial securities even requires a delay of less than 1 ms;

(4) Ubiquitous and massive connection requirements of "many areas, many points and wide areas": the interconnection of all things requires the connection of numerous Internet of Things terminals. Some Internet of Things applications involve forests, deserts and Gobi, which are uninhabited. Ubiquitous requirements are put forward for network coverage;

(5) Safety and reliability: This is basically the general requirement for all communication and information services in the future, while some manufacturing enterprises with high safety and reliability requirements have stricter requirements for usability, reliability and safety.

⑥ High flexibility and high cost performance: enterprises, enterprises, individuals and home users have different applications, different computing depth and breadth, huge differences in the number of connections required by each application, and various differences in performance requirements. The network not only needs sufficient bandwidth, but also needs agile adaptability and can allocate reasonable resources at the best cost.

The above six aspects are the main demands of the data center for connectivity and optical interfaces.