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industry growth segments. Market Watch is a three-day, six session series of panel discussions on the latest application topics and business issues in the field of optical communications, including the popular State of the Industry Analyst Panel. The one-day Network Operator Summit presents the inside perspective from service providers and network operators; their challenges, drivers and how their requirements may impact the future of the industry. This year’s Data Center Summit session will focus on optical Interconnect technologies and markets. Panellists will debate multiple topics related to the data center and how connecting data centres poses a di erent opportunity for network operators. The OFC Open Platform Summit (OPS) Session, SDN & NFV Demo Zone, will provide attendees with the opportunity to view live demonstrations and prototypes of collaborative research projects, pre-commercial products and proof-of-concept implementations in the SDN and NFV space. HACKATHON Also returning to OFC 2018 is the interactive Lab Automation Hackathon. Technology leaders from Nokia Bell Labs, Acacia Communications and the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden will hold an interactive session demonstrating how to use open source software in easy to learn languages, such as Python, to quickly get a lab experiment running and display the measurements in a browser. More than 120 invited speakers will participate in OFC’s peer-reviewed technical program. EXHIBITION With one of the largest exhibit floors in recent years, OFC 2018 will feature more than 700 exhibitors from leading global
companies including Ciena, Coriant, Corning, Cisco, Fujitsu, Huawei, Inphi, Juniper, Macom, Mitsubishi, Nokia, Oclaro and many more. Technologies on display include network and test equipment, optical transport systems and optical components, data center interconnects, fibre cables and specialty fibre manufacturers. SNEAK PREVIEWS Ahead of this year’s event several exhibitors have made early announcements of some of the new products and systems on show and special presentations. These include: EXFO: Choosing the Best Field-Based Optical Spectrum Analyzer for Analysis of 200G/400G and Flexgrid Signals Huawei: Key Technologies in Open Optical Transmission Systems OptoTest: The Importance of Verifying a Reference Reflection for Accurate RL Measurements Go!Foton: The PEACOC V3.0 Ultra High Density Fibre Management Platform MaxLinear: Industry’s First 400Gbps PAM4 DSP SoC with Integrated Laser Drivers for Cloud Data Center and Enterprise Network Infrastructure RUMP SESSION The intriguingly named Rump Session, which takes place on Tuesday, 13 March, addresses the question: When Will Coherent Replace Direct Detection in the Data Center? Moderated by Chris Cole, of Finisar, USA, the panel session with audience participation will consider the following issues: Over time, optics has replaced copper cables starting with long reach transmission, followed by regional, metro, inter-facility, and finally all links inside the data center except for server interconnect. Even server I/O is under challenge by active optical cables. Replacement of IMDD (Intensity Modulated Direct Detection) optics by Coherent optics appears to be following the same trend, but on a delayed time line. Coherent has now replaced IMDD in long reach transmission, regional, and metro applications. Coherent vs. IMDD for 20km, 40km and 80km links at 100G and 400G is the subject of intense industry debate including in standards bodies and tough competition in the market place. Will this trend continue, and when if ever will Coherent replace IMDD for 500m, 1km and 2km data center links?
hope will facilitate reverse engineering cells, brains, and societies and forward engineering future network architectures.” ● Chengliang Zhang, Vice President, China Telecom Beijing Research Institute, China. This plenary talk will present the recent optical network evolution of China Telecom and other major Chinese network operators, which are enabled by modern technologies such as coherent 100G/200G, ROADM/WSS, transport SDN, and data center connectivity. Zhang commented, “With the intensification of cloud-based services and 5G wireless developments, we will also discuss how optical transport network (OTN) need to be transformed to better address future demands such as higher capacity, lower latency, and service-specific network slicing.” ● Marcus Weldon, President, Nokia Bell Labs, USA: Weldon is considered one of the luminaries in the industry in terms of the clarity, depth and breadth of his vision for the future of networks. He has championed many technological disruptions in telecommunications networks. These range from the evolution and convergence of networks to all IP, the interference cancellation, the evolution of wireless networks to highly-distributed networks of small cells and the emergence of virtualisation and Software Defined Networking as profound industry changing forces that will drive a new integrated and federated network architecture. SHOW FLOOR CONFERENCES The OFC conference programming located in Exhibit hall theatres includes OFC Market Watch, Network Operator Summit and 15+ programs focused on evolution of copper-based Access networks to support sophisticated
OPTICAL CONNECTIONS Besides all of this, the Optical Connections team will also be in
Opportunity: OFC 2018 delegates will benefit from literally hundreds of conference and floor presentations.
attendance, so please visit us on stand 4803 and let us know what you are doing in the optical communications sector.
www.opticalconnectionsnews.com
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ISSUE 12 | Q1 2018
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