From March 6-10 at the San Diego Convention Center, the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC), the foremost global event for the optical communications and networking sphere, safely welcomed back thousands of in-person exhibitors, attendees and media members from across the globe. OFC 2022 hosted 8,000 participants and 430 exhibiting companies.
Given its focus on inclusivity, OFC also this year offered a fully hybrid conference experience. Critical members of the global community unable to travel to the U.S. participated in the event virtually, joining live Q&A discussions and gaining access to recorded content within 24 hours.
"Global optical communications leaders united once again to exchange information and demonstrate ground-breaking interoperability including the newly launched OFCnet, catapulting optical technologies and network advancements into the reality of tomorrow," said a joint statement by OFC general chairs Shinji Matsuo, David Plant and Jun Shan Wey. "Over the past two years, many of the best and brightest companies have been hard at work and were eager to show the world just how far optical advancements have come."
OFC 2022 exhibits showcase optical innovation
Hundreds of companies reconnected with customers unveiled new optical communications products, equipment, demonstrations and a range technical innovations at this year's OFC 2022 exhibits.
Participants included AC Photonics; Advanced Microoptic Systems GmbH; Aerotech Inc.; Aragon Photonics Labs; Broadcom, Inc.; CIENA Corporation; Cisco Systems, Inc.; Corning Incorporated; East Photonics, Inc.; Go!Foton; Infinera; Intel; LIGENTEC; Keysight Technologies; Lumentum; Murata; Nokia; NTT Advanced Technology Corporation; NTT Electronics Corporation; Santec USA; Semtech Corporation; Tektronix, Inc.; Viavi Solutions and VPIphotonics.
"We had a great week here at OFC and are glad to have the industry back together in person," asserted Eve Griliches, senior product marketing s, Cisco. "It was clear the right customers were all here to see the innovation and new technologies that have come to market over the past few years."
"We are excited to be back in person participating in OFC, the premier optical networking event in the industry," said Rob Shore, senior vice president of marketing at Infinera. "It has been an invaluable opportunity to showcase our latest coherent optical innovations, including ICE-XR, ICE6 Turbo and our Open Optical Toolkit designed to help network operators overcome the challenges associated with the relentless growth in bandwidth in the edge and core of the network."
"Seeing some of the products live on the show floor and networking face-to-face with industry peers after a two-year hiatus from OFC helped make some of the latest optical innovations more concrete," offered Woo Jin Ho, senior networking and semiconductor analyst, Bloomberg Intelligence. "For example, OIF's demonstration of Near-Packaged Optics and Co-Packaged Optics helped me better conceptualize some of the technologies that hyperscale clouds could be adopting into their data centers over the next five to ten years."
OFCnet fiber patch launches
In collaboration with the operator of California's research and education network CENIC, at this year's event, OFC also launched OFCnet, a live high-speed fiber path connecting CENIC's facility in San Diego to the San Diego Convention Center, designed to accelerate the development and deployment of the most advanced networking technology.
CENIC's high speed network is built on the Lumen optical fiber and colocation infrastructure. These ultra-fast connections are designed to increase scientific collaboration among diverse organizations across the U.S.
OFCnet is the result of the consortium's collaboration with CENIC, Ciena, EXFO, Lumen, San Diego Convention Center, Smart City Networks, the University of California San Diego's Qualcomm Institute and Supercomputer Center and Viavi.
"Ciena is proud to be the first to light OFCnet using our Wavelogic 5 technology to provide multi-Tbps, ultra-low latency capacity between the OFC exhibit and the CENIC network," said Steve Alexander, Ciena CTO and Chair of OFC's Long Range Planning Committee. "This ongoing collaboration will provide future OFC conference and exhibitions with a unique platform to showcase the latest advancements in optical technologies, systems, and networks, all operating in a real-world environment."
Plenary session hosts optical visionaries
Also at this year's OFC event, an impressive line-up of plenary visionaries showcased optical communications technologies "driving innovation for a better future," as stated by the consortium. The event's plenary speakers demonstrated the impact that the latest developments in optics and photonics will have on the industry and the world moving forward.
The plenary line-up included
- John Bowers, Director, Institute of Energy Efficiency, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
- James Green, Scientist and Senior Advisor, NASA, USA
- Elise Neel, Senior Vice President, New Business Incubation, Verizon, USA
Bowers, a pioneer and professor in silicon photonics, presented on exciting recent developments from small wafers on indium phosphide, to the making of photonic devices on silicon.
James Green took attendees on a journey to deep space, the moon and mars, and explained how critical optical communications will support upcoming missions.
Elise Neel demonstrated the wonders of the digital transformation enabled by 5G and Verizon's vision of the fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0.
OFC 2023 is scheduled for March 5-9 at the San Diego Convention Center.