Single-Most Important Annual Event in Optical Communications and Networking, OFC 2018 Wraps in San Diego with Major Announcements in Data-Center Connectivity, 5G and Cloud Computing
OFC 2018, the largest global conference and exposition in optical communications and networking, wrapped up an impressive and stimulating week in San Diego, CA, showcasing the latest innovations in the field, with more than 15,500 attendees, 700+ exhibitors from 65 countries, and over 850 peer reviewed technical sessions.
The only global event where attendees witness the innovation behind the technology that powers communications today, OFC has been on a steep growth trajectory over the last three years, increasing in overall square footage by 44% and experiencing a 21% growth in exhibitors and attendees.
“Optical advancements in 5G, next-gen optical transport, multi-layer optical internetworking, open transport hardware/software and disaggregation led many discussions this week during OFC–in ground-breaking research presented, technical workshops, product launches and in the plenary addresses from industry visionaries,” said Martin Birk, Lead Member of Technical Staff, AT&T Labs, USA, and a General Chair of OFC 2018. “OFC is the industry’s stage to present, debate, launch and demonstrate the innovations driving applications including AI and connected vehicles that are on the cusp of changing the world in which we live.”
Technical sessions addressed the very latest groundbreaking optical innovations, data-center connectivity, 5G-oriented optical networking, quantum communication and cloud computing, and the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in optical
Innovations in Optics
The foremost researchers presented industry leading technical peer-reviewed papers, including:
The Long and the Short of Transmission Performance Evaluation – Comparing performance measurement techniques of multiplexed signal transmissions reveals channel correlation driven differences that depend on distance and become indistinguishable at transoceanic-scale transmission lengths. By testing transmitter measurement schemes, engineers from TE SubCom, New Jersey, USA, demonstrated that differences between performance measurements depends on the transmission distance and choice of DSP used.
IBM Reveals a Novel Energy-saving Optical Receiver with a new Record of Rapid Power-on/off Time – Based on complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (COMS) technology, a group of researchers from IBM Research in Zurich, Switzerland, together with a consortium working under the EU-funded project “ADDAPT,” have demonstrated a novel optical receiver (RX) that can achieve an aggregate bandwidth of 160 Gb/s through four optical fibers. This is not only the fastest data transmission speed to date, but the newly developed optical receiver also features the link power-on/off functionality and can wake-up and achieve phase-lock in eight nanoseconds, the shortest switch time in record.
New Study Compares 400G Optical Transceivers for Next-Generation Datacenter Networks – To hone in on how different designs of 400G transceivers would affect device cost and power consumption, and how these cost differences would eventually influence the cost of datacenter networks, an international research team from Greece, Luxemburg and Spain have analyzed and compared the cost and power consumption of different 400G transceivers. For the first time, they predicted each transceivers cost reduction trends over the next five years using a mathematical model. The researchers further evaluated the cost and power consumption of constructing and upgrading the datacenter based on Facebook’s Fabric architecture, using different transceiver-installation technologies and providing cost-effective and power-efficient connectivity solutions for different sizes of datacenters.
Fast, High Capacity Fiber Transmission Gets Real for Data Centers – A cutting edge, “off-line” signal transmission mechanism, experimentally demonstrated just a few years ago, is now on-line as a real-time bi-directional transmission system. A research team from Nokia reported the real-time, bi-directional transmission of 78 interleaved, 400 gigabit per second (Gb/s) channels with a 31.2 terabit per second (Tb/s) fiber capacity.
Exhibit Floor Programming
Communications executives, including global network operators and thought-leaders, converged during the Market Watch programming to discuss the latest application topics and business issues in the field of optical communications. The Network Operator Summit, a one day program, supplied professionals from equipment manufacturers to component manufacturers with the inside perspective from service providers and network operators, as they discussed how their requirements may impact the future of the industry.
Global Exhibits
More than 700 global organizations, including established global brands and industry start-ups, used this year’s event to launch and demonstrate new products and innovations on 350,000 square feet of exhibit space.
Organizations participating in OFC 2018 include: Arrayed Fiberoptics Corporation, ATOP Corporation, Cicor Group, Ciena, Coriant, Corning Incorporated, Cisco Systems, EFFECT Photonics, Finisar, Fujitsu Optical Components, Global Communication Semiconductors, Inc.; Huawei Technologies, Infinera, Juniper Networks, Liverage Technology, Inc., Lumentum, Mellanox Technologies, Mitsubishi International, Nokia and more. Technologies on display include network and test equipment, optical transport systems and optical component, fiber cables and specialty fiber manufacturers.
Major global companies including ATOP, ColorChip, Huawei and Xilinx showcased products and solutions in 5G, WDM Transport Network (WTN), submarine optical fiber and data center technologies.
About OFC
The Optical Fiber Conference and Exposition (OFC) is the largest global conference and exposition for optical communications and networking professionals. For more than 40 years, OFC has drawn attendees from all corners of the globe to meet and greet, teach and learn, make connections and move business forward.
OFC includes dynamic business programming, an exposition of more than 700 companies, and high impact peer-reviewed research that, combined, showcase the trends and pulse of the entire optical networking and communications industry. OFC is managed by The Optical Society (OSA) and co-sponsored by OSA, the IEEE Communications Society (IEEE/ComSoc), and the IEEE Photonics Society. OFC 2019 will be held 3 – 7 March, San Diego Convention Center, California, USA. Follow @OFCConference, learn more OFC Conference LinkedIn, and watch highlights OFC YouTube.