Getting Ready For OFC 2024

By John Oncea, Editor

The Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition draws attendees from around the world interested in learning about the latest advancements and innovations in the industry. Let’s take a look at this year’s event, set to take place March 24–28 in San Diego.

The 2024 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC), a global gathering for optical communications and networking professionals, will take place March 24–28 at the San Diego Convention Center. This year’s OFC is a hybrid event with in-person and virtual presentations, as well as a three-day exhibition, and organizers are expecting over 13,000 participants from 74 countries, 87 media outlets, and more than 603 exhibiting companies in its exhibition halls in 2024.

“The optical sector is currently in an exciting period,” said Bloomberg Intelligence’s Woo Jin Ho. “Companies continue to introduce and launch innovations at OFC, such as 1.2T and 1.6T coherent optics and Co-Packaged Optics. But it was refreshing to hear the ramp up and monetization of the innovations that were introduced at OFC two, three years ago.”

“OFC is the place to get a first-hand look at the technologies and applications that will power the future of optical networking,” added Ciena CTO Steve Alexander. “Many innovations are happening in coherent technology, software, and automation and the conference allows attendees to get up close with the advances that are pushing the envelope in these areas.”

Workshops, Tutorials, And More

OFC 2024 features peer-reviewed presentations and more than 120 invited speakers and technical programming throughout the week including symposia, special sessions, short courses, a demo zone, show floor programs, and special events.

The symposia topics include:

• Green Transformation: Where Do We Stand?
• Embracing Fiber Sensing: What’s the “Killer App” for Large-Scale Deployments?
• PICs for Quantum Communication and Quantum Computing: Challenges and Opportunities

The two special sessions are Frontiers of Optical Network Architecture Summit and Moore’s Law: A Photonics Perspective for the Next Decade.

Short Courses cover a broad range of topic areas at a variety of educational levels and are taught by highly regarded industry experts. More than 50 Short Courses are being offered and, whether you choose a course designed for beginners or one designed for more advanced instruction, the small size of each class provides an opportunity for personalized instruction.

Drop Into The Demo Zone

The Demo Zone will feature live demonstrations of research projects and proof-of-concept implementations in the space of optical communications devices, systems, and networks.

Demonstrations occur in a dedicated booth equipped with a table, a monitor, and a bulletin board. They are shown to small groups, favoring an interactive format with real-time exchanges between attendees and demo presenters. Demonstrations are typically executed on demand and may incorporate a mix of on-site and remote equipment. These could additionally involve recorded videos or live connections to remote hardware or experiments.

Demo Zone highlights various aspects of optical physical layer transmission, hardware, and network orchestration/intelligence. These aspects include, but are not restricted to:

• Automated device alignment or characterization setups
• Automated measurement setups for high-capacity transmission experiments, including the use of novel optical fibers
• Systems, sub-systems, and devices for free-space, microwave, or optical fiber transmission and switching
• Server systems and wide bandwidth optical interconnects for data center and high-performance computing
• Digital processing sub-systems and sensing
• Optical access networks, including their convergence with metro transport, wireless access networks, MEC
• Novel networking elements and concepts, including those supporting time-deterministic and low-latency applications
• Network virtualization, slicing, software-defined control of networks
• Programmable networks, including softwarised network functions and programmable hardware
• Autonomous network management, control, and orchestration
• Fiber monitoring and sensing, streaming telemetry, and network data analytics
• Application of AI and ML to optical network systems and sub-systems
• Quantum networking, including demonstration of entanglement distribution, implementing advanced QKD applications and quantum protocols

Show Floor Programming

Three show floor theaters will feature presentations by experts from major global brands and key industry organizations covering market trends and new technologies, including the Data Center Summit. This program focuses on next-generation optical technologies for intra- and/or inter-data center connectivity. Evolving data center requirements and challenges will be discussed as they pertain to equipment, technologies, applications, and deployment scenarios.

Market Watch, a three-day series of panel discussions, will highlight the latest application topics and business issues in the field of optical communications. Presentations and panel sessions feature esteemed guest speakers from industry, research, and the investment community.

The Network Operator Summit will present an inside perspective from network operators and service providers – their issues, business drivers, and how network requirements impact the future of the industry. Everyone in the supply chain, from equipment to component manufacturers, will want to hear what’s next in meeting the demand of our industry’s network operators.

Last but not least is OFCnet, a live network built to showcase emerging technologies including quantum networking, network element interoperability, SDN and programmability, and networking for Big Data/Big Science applications from industry innovators. OFCnet enables booth-to-booth fiber connectivity for on-site optical demonstrations while also extending CENIC to the OFC show floor. This connectivity provides new opportunities for exhibitors collaborating with affiliated academic institutions to highlight advancements and capabilities in a live real-time, fully operational network environment.