OFC 2024 reflects a mature industry with new offshoots

• The three General Chairs preview the upcoming Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) conference and discuss photonics developments and trends.
• The General Chairs' role is to choose the plenary speakers, programme theme, and conference schedule.
• OFC takes place during March 24th-28th in San Diego, CA.*

Photonics, at least for traditional applications, has become a mature industry. So says Professor Dimitra Simeonidou, one of this year's OFC General Chairs.

Professor Dimitra Simeonidou

By traditional, Simeonidou is referring to classical optical communications.

But she also stresses new developments: the use of optical fibres for environmental sensing, optics for satellites, and quantum.

"Quantum is like a micro-OFC," says Simeonidou. "You have issues from technology to subsystem to system applications now appearing in the OFC programmes."

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The OIF's coherent optics work gets a ZR+ rating

The OIF has started work on a 1600ZR+ standard to enable the sending of 1.6 terabits of data across hundreds of kilometres of optical fibre. 

The initiative follows the OIF's announcement last September that it had kicked off 1600ZR. ZR refers to an extended reach standard, sending 1.6 terabits over an 80-120km point-to-point link. 

1600ZR follows the OIF's previous work standardising the 400-gigabit 400ZR and the 800-gigabit 800ZR coherent pluggable optics.      

The decision to address a 'ZR+' standard is a first for the OIF. Until now, only the OpenZR+ Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) and the OpenROADM MSA developed interoperable ZR+ optics.

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ECOC 2023 industry reflections - Final Part

Gazettabyte has been asking industry figures to reflect on the recent ECOC show in Glasgow. The final instalment emphasises coherent technology with contributions from Adtran, Cignal AI, Infinera, Ciena, and Acacia.

The popular Market Focus sessions at ECOC

Jörg-Peter Elbers, head of advanced technology at Adtran

The ECOC 2023 conference and show was a great event. The exhibition floor was busy and offered ample networking opportunities. In turn, the conference and the Market Focus sessions provided information on the latest technologies, products, and developments.

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Agent of change

Dave Welch on how entrepreneurial problem-solving skills can tackle some of society's biggest challenges

Dave Welch is best known for being the founder and chief innovation officer at Infinera, the optical equipment specialist. But he has a history of involvement in social causes.

In 2012, Welch went to court to fight for the educational rights of children in schools in California, a story covered by newspapers in the US and abroad and featured on the front cover of Time magazine.

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ECOC 2022 Reflections - Part 1

Gazettabyte is asking industry and academic figures for their thoughts after attending ECOC 2022, held in Basel, Switzerland. In particular, what developments and trends they noted, what they learned, and what, if anything, surprised them.

In Part 1, Infinera's David Welch, Cignal AI's Scott Wilkinson, University of Cambridge's Professor Seb Savory, and Huawei's Maxim Kuschnerov share their thoughts.

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Infinera’s ICE6 crosses the 100-gigabaud threshold

Coherent discourse 3

• The ICE6 Turbo can send two 800-gigabit wavelengths over network spans of 1,100-1,200km using a 100.4 gigabaud (GBd) symbol rate.
• The enhanced reach can reduce the optical transport equipment needed in a network by 25 to 30 per cent.

Infinera has enhanced the optical performance of its ICE6 coherent engine, increasing by up to 30 per cent the reach of its highest-capacity wavelength transmissions.

Ron JohnsonThe ICE6 Turbo coherent optical engine can send 800-gigabit optical wavelengths over 1,100-1,200km compared to the ICE6’s reach of 700-800km.

ICE6 Turbo uses the same coherent digital signal processor (DSP) and optics as the ICE6 but operates at a higher symbol rate of 100.4GBd.

“This is the first time 800 gigabits can hit long-haul distances,” says Ron Johnson, general manager of Infinera’s optical systems & network solutions group.

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Is traffic aggregation the next role for coherent?

Ciena and Infinera have each demonstrated the transmission of 800-gigabit wavelengths over near-1,000km distances, continuing coherent's marked progress. But what next for coherent now that high-end optical transmission is approaching the theoretical limit? Can coherent compete over shorter spans and will it find new uses?

The first of several articles addressing what next for coherent.

Part 1: XR Optics

“I’m going to be a bit of a historian here,” says Dave Welch, when asked about the future of coherent.

Interest in coherent started with the idea of using electronics rather than optics to tackle dispersion in fibre. Using electronics for dispersion compensation made optical link engineering simpler.

Dave Welch

Coherent then evolved as a way to improve spectral efficiency and reduce the cost of sending traffic, measured in gigabit-per-dollar.

“By moving up the QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) scale, you got both these benefits,” says Welch, the chief innovation officer at Infinera.

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