Keysight’s latest solutions address signal integrity, compliance, and production testing challenges for emerging 1.6T interconnects.
Keysight Technologies has introduced a new set of advanced 224G test solutions designed to expand its 1.6T end-to-end testing portfolio, helping engineers address the growing validation and manufacturing challenges associated with next-generation electrical and optical interconnects used in AI-driven data centers. As artificial intelligence workloads continue to grow rapidly, data center architectures are evolving to support higher speeds, increased bandwidth, and more complex connectivity requirements. These changes are accelerating the industry’s shift toward 224G electrical lanes and 1.6-terabit (1.6T) optical modules, which are expected to become the backbone of future AI networking infrastructure.
The new solutions aim to help engineers simplify testing processes, ensure compliance with emerging standards, and improve overall development efficiency. By providing tools that support testing across the entire product lifecycle—from early research and development to high-volume manufacturing—Keysight’s latest innovations are intended to accelerate the deployment of high-performance AI data center networks.
Rising Demand for Faster Data Center Interconnects
Modern data centers are undergoing rapid transformation as artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads push the limits of computing infrastructure. AI training clusters, hyperscale cloud environments, and large-scale data analytics platforms require enormous volumes of data to move quickly between processors, memory systems, and storage resources.
To meet these demands, network designers are implementing scale-up architectures, which expand compute resources within a single system, as well as scale-out architectures, which interconnect thousands of servers across distributed clusters. Both approaches require ultra-high-speed connectivity, driving the adoption of 224G electrical signaling and 1.6T optical interconnect technologies.
While these innovations dramatically improve network performance and capacity, they also introduce significant engineering challenges. At such extreme data rates, maintaining signal integrity becomes increasingly difficult. Designers must contend with tighter compliance margins, higher levels of noise and distortion, and complex testing requirements that span both electrical and optical domains.
Furthermore, the transition to next-generation interconnect speeds places greater pressure on manufacturing processes. Device makers must validate performance, reliability, and interoperability while ensuring that testing procedures remain efficient and repeatable at scale.
Addressing Testing Challenges Across the Development Lifecycle
As next-generation networking technologies advance, engineers require testing solutions that can adapt to each stage of the development process. Early in the design phase, teams need tools that enable rapid debugging and characterization of new silicon devices, ASICs, and optical components. As products mature, the focus shifts to compliance validation and system interoperability testing. Finally, during production, testing must become highly automated and scalable to maintain manufacturing throughput.
Keysight’s latest test solutions are designed to meet these evolving requirements by providing integrated, standards-compliant capabilities that reduce test complexity while improving measurement accuracy and repeatability.
The company’s new Digital Communication Analyzer (DCA)-based test applications support electrical and optical testing aligned with the requirements of IEEE’s emerging IEEE 802.3dj specification. These applications enable engineers to conduct testing during early validation stages and continue using the same platform as products progress toward full compliance certification and production deployment.
By integrating automated workflows, advanced measurement capabilities, and detailed reporting tools, the solutions allow engineering teams to move more quickly from system bring-up and signal characterization to compliance validation, helping reduce design risk and accelerate time-to-market for next-generation data center interconnect technologies.
Expanding the 1.6T Optical and Electrical Test Portfolio
Keysight’s newly announced portfolio of 224G test solutions includes several key components that support both optical and electrical transmitter validation, as well as high-speed waveform measurement for multimode optical applications.
These technologies work together to provide a comprehensive framework for testing next-generation networking components used in AI data center environments.
224G DCA Optical Transmitter Conformance Test Software
One of the core additions to the portfolio is the Keysight N1095DJCA optical transmitter conformance test software, which is designed to support optical measurements aligned with the IEEE 802.3dj standard.
This application enables engineers to perform detailed characterization of optical transmitters as designs mature, ensuring that devices meet strict performance and compliance requirements before entering production. The software operates on the Digital Communication Analyzer platform and works with the Keysight N1093 DCA-M sampling oscilloscopes, which offer enhanced measurement sensitivity and improved signal fidelity.
By delivering high-precision measurement results, the software helps engineers evaluate critical optical transmitter quality metrics such as Transmitter and Dispersion Eye Closure Quaternary (TDECQ) and TDECQ Codeword Error Ratio (TDECQ-CER). These metrics are essential for assessing signal quality in high-speed optical links and determining whether devices meet the required performance thresholds for reliable network operation.
The application also supports correlation of measurement results across research, development, and pre-production environments. This capability helps ensure consistency between laboratory testing and manufacturing validation processes, reducing discrepancies that could otherwise delay product deployment.
In addition, the software includes automated characterization workflows designed specifically for 1.6T single-mode optical transceivers. These automated procedures streamline complex testing processes, allowing engineers to quickly identify performance issues, analyze signal behavior, and validate compliance with industry testing methodologies.
Another key benefit is the ability to generate comprehensive measurement reports automatically. Instead of manually compiling large datasets and analysis results, engineers can produce detailed, customer-ready reports within seconds. This feature improves efficiency and simplifies collaboration between development teams, manufacturing partners, and system integrators.
224G DCA Electrical Transmitter Test Software
Complementing the optical testing solution is the Keysight N1091DJPA electrical transmitter test software, which is designed specifically for electrical signal validation in research and development environments.
This application provides engineers with powerful tools for analyzing transmitter behavior using half-rate clocking configurations, making it particularly valuable during early silicon validation and ASIC development stages. During this phase of product development, engineers often need to explore design margins, identify signal distortions, and diagnose potential performance issues.
The software helps streamline these processes by guiding users through test configuration and measurement setup using an intuitive, application-driven workflow. This approach reduces manual complexity and ensures that engineers follow standardized testing procedures, improving both accuracy and repeatability.
The electrical validation solution leverages the capabilities of the Keysight DCA-X wide-bandwidth sampling oscilloscope, which provides the bandwidth required to capture and analyze signals at extremely high data rates. When combined with DCA-M clock recovery modules, the system enables precise timing recovery and signal analysis for next-generation electrical interfaces.
By integrating these capabilities into a single solution, the platform helps reduce overall test time while providing detailed insights into transmitter performance. Engineers can quickly detect signal anomalies, evaluate design margins, and optimize system performance before moving into compliance testing and manufacturing stages.
224G Multimode DCA-M Sampling Oscilloscope
Another key component of the expanded portfolio is the Keysight N1096 multimode DCA-M sampling oscilloscope, which is designed to support high-speed optical measurements for short-reach multimode applications commonly used in AI-driven data centers.
The oscilloscope provides measurement capabilities for 224-Gbps or 112-GBd PAM4 signals, enabling engineers to analyze complex waveforms and validate signal integrity at speeds that were previously difficult to measure accurately.
This capability is particularly important for the development of multimode optical components and modules used in short-distance data center interconnects. These technologies are widely deployed within AI clusters to connect GPUs, accelerators, and networking switches over relatively short distances while maintaining extremely high bandwidth.
By offering higher measurement bandwidth and improved waveform analysis capabilities, the N1096 sampling oscilloscope allows engineers to directly validate signal performance beyond earlier measurement limits. This helps accelerate the development of next-generation optical components that support 1.6T interconnect speeds.
The instrument is also designed to support development workflows that extend from initial research and prototyping to early manufacturing readiness. As a result, engineering teams can use the same platform throughout multiple stages of product development, improving efficiency and reducing the need for separate testing systems.
Supporting the Future of AI Data Center Infrastructure
As AI adoption continues to grow across industries, the demand for high-speed networking technologies is expected to increase dramatically. Hyperscale cloud providers, research institutions, and enterprise organizations are investing heavily in infrastructure capable of supporting large-scale AI training and inference workloads.
These environments rely on ultra-fast data movement between computing resources, making 1.6T optical networking technologies a critical component of future data center architectures. However, achieving reliable performance at these speeds requires advanced testing and validation solutions that can keep pace with rapidly evolving standards and hardware designs.
According to Dr. Joachim Peerlings, Vice President of Network and Data Center Solutions at Keysight, the industry’s shift toward higher-speed interconnects demands testing solutions that integrate electrical and optical validation capabilities while remaining scalable across development and manufacturing environments.
He noted that as the industry transitions to 224G signaling and 1.6T interconnect technologies, engineers need comprehensive test platforms capable of supporting every stage of the product lifecycle. The newly introduced solutions are intended to meet this need by providing a unified framework for electrical and optical testing.
Demonstration at OFC 2026
Keysight plans to showcase its expanded 224G test portfolio at OFC 2026, one of the world’s leading events focused on optical networking and communications technologies.
During the event, the company will demonstrate end-to-end electrical and optical testing workflows that support next-generation data center interconnects. These demonstrations will highlight how engineers can use the new solutions to streamline development, validate performance, and prepare devices for compliance with emerging industry standards.
Enabling Faster Innovation in High-Speed Networking
With the introduction of these new 224G testing solutions, Keysight is expanding its role in supporting the development of high-performance networking technologies that power the world’s most advanced data centers.
By providing tools that address the complex challenges of signal integrity, compliance validation, and manufacturing scalability, the company aims to help network equipment manufacturers and semiconductor developers bring next-generation 1.6T interconnect solutions to market faster and more reliably.
As AI continues to transform computing infrastructure, innovations in testing and measurement will remain essential for ensuring that high-speed networks deliver the performance, reliability, and efficiency required to support the next wave of digital transformation.
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