Operating Linear Pluggable Optics at Hyperscale: From Link Management to Production Reliability#

Amin Yekani (Meta), Qing Wang (Meta)

• Why: LPO removes the DSP and shifts equalization to the host ASIC — an architecture any PM evaluating power-vs-reliability in optical links must judge. This is one of the few talks with fleet-scale production data rather than lab claims.
• What: Meta's operational experience with LPO across link management, link-health monitoring, and production results: a large-scale live-traffic deployment with tens of millions of accumulated link-hours, including failure-rate, signal-quality, power, and thermal measurements (from abstract only).
• How: Host- and module-side signal conditioning maintained fleet-wide (since no DSP auto-adapts), plus multi-layer monitoring covering signal quality, error metrics, and early detection of lane-level degradation.
• Where applicable: Explicitly framed as applicable to any DSP-free optical architecture; the operational framework (not just the modules) is the transferable artifact. Constrained by host-ASIC equalization capability — not a drop-in for any switch.