Transceivers

A transceiver is the plug-in module that converts electrical signals into light and back again at each end of an optical link. It matters because it is the per-port unit of connectivity: every connection in the network fabric needs one, so transceiver demand scales directly with the size and topology of the cluster. As clusters grow, that demand has become explosive, marching up the speed grades from 400G to 800G and now 1.6T — high-volume parts that concentrate a great deal of risk into a few components.

If modules run short — whether the bottleneck is lasers, the DSP chip, or exotic materials — the entire network buildout is throttled, since the fabric cannot be wired without them. Exposure concentrates in a small group of module makers and their supply base: InnoLight, Coherent, Eoptolink, Accelink, Applied Optoelectronics and Source Photonics, whose volumes rise and fall with every new cluster.