OFC Brings Together Industry Leaders, Innovators

The OSA Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC), to be held March 20-24, is hailed as “the largest global conference and exhibition for optical communications and networking professionals.” The event, which has been held annually for more than 40 years, brings together industry experts, professionals, researchers and others, offering a forum for networking, education and business opportunities. OFC also provides insight on the major trends and technology advances affecting the industry.

The latest technologies, products and information are presented — optical networking, gigabit Ethernet, SDN and networks, test and measurement, optical packets, optical interconnects/switches, 100Gb/s hardware, WDM, switches, ROADMs, VCSEL, transport, spatial division multiplexing, integrated photonics, and FTTX are among them.

Technical presentations will be held, in addition to discussions about the latest market trends and future predictions. These include Market Watch, a three-day series of panel discussions that should engage the latest application topics and business issues in the field of optical communications. Presentations and panel sessions during this series will feature speakers from across the optics industry, including Apple, Cisco, Finisar, Google and Infinera. Among topics to be addressed are submarine interconnection of data centers, 100G pluggable optics, and 400G Ethernet technologies.

Another such presentation scheduled is the Service Provider Summit. This program is designed specifically for CTOs, network architects, network designers and technologists within the service provider and carrier sector. Panel discussions will be held, in addition to a keynote presentation by Margaret Chiosi, distinguished network architect at AT&T, who will be speaking about Network Function Virtualization. Other presentations during OFC are Vertically Integrated WDM Platforms vs. Open Line Systems, and Optical Layer Flexibility with Next Generation ROADMs.

OFC will feature exhibitors — network and test equipment vendors, systems and component manufacturers, fiber cable and specialty fiber manufacturers — from many international companies, too, including Alcatel-Lucent, Avago, Ciena, Coriant, Corning Inc., Cisco Systems, Fujitsu Optical Components, Global Communication Semiconductors Inc., Huawei Technologies USA, Juniper Networks, and Mitsubishi International.

The event will also feature panel discussions that focus on top market trends, technologies, the manufacturing and industrial sectors, among other related topics.

     • State of the Industry
     • Next Generation Data Center Optics
     • The Promising Market of 100G and Beyond Pluggable Devices
     • COBO - What It Is and Why Should You Care?
     • The State of Ethernet Optics
     • The Global Colocation of Market - Are Worlds Colliding?
     • Impact of Mega Data on the Industry Supply Chain
     • Sanity Check - Where are we on 25GE and 50GE?
     • IoT Industrial Deployment

In addition, business programming will be held, featuring presentations by experts from major global brands and key industry organizations, including Alibaba Group, Coriant, Cisco, Facebook, Juniper Networks, LinkedIn and Verizon.

For more information and to register, visit www.ofcconference.org.