OFC 2018 Focused on PIC, 5G, Data Centre Connectivity
OFC 2018 wrapped-up in San Diego, California (USA) on 15 March in a showcase of the latest photonic integration innovations, with an emphasis on optical opportunities within 5G wireless systems as well as data center connectivity and a plethorea of new software design tools and optimization announcements. Event managers said 15,500 persons attended from 65 countries. OFC 2018 drew more than 700 exhibitors and over 850 peer reviewed technical sessions were presented. The OFC has been on a growth trajectory over the past four years, with overall square footage increasing by 44 percent; the event has also grown more than 20% in terms of exhibitors and attendees, event managers also reported.
"Optical advancements in 5G, next-gen optical transport, multi-layer optical internetworking, open transport hardware/software and disaggregation led many discussions this week during OFC ... Ground-breaking research (was) presented; technical workshops, product launches and the plenary addresses from industry visionaries..." were highlights, according to Martin Birk, Lead Member of Technical Staff, AT&T Labs, USA, and a General Chair of OFC 2018. "OFC is the industry's stage to present, debate, launch and demonstrate the innovations driving applications including AI and connected vehicles that are on the cusp of changing the world in which we live."
Presentations by renowned researches from across Europe, the US and Asia again offered insights into the growth of optical communications and PIC technology. According to the event managers, technical presentation highlights included:
Engineers from TE SubCom, New Jersey, (USA), tested optical transmitter measurement schemes, and reported that by comparing performance measurement techniques of multiplexed signal transmissions they found that it revealed channel correlation driven differences that depend on distance; these differences become indistinguishable at transoceanic-scale transmission lengths.
A group of scientists from IBM Research in Zurich, Switzerland, together with a consortium working under the EU-funded project "ADDAPT," have demonstrated a novel optical receiver (Rx) that can achieve an aggregate bandwidth of 160 Gb/s through four optical fibers. The demonstration project involved complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (COMS) technology. According to the participants, this is not only the fastest data transmission speed to date, but the newly developed optical receiver also features the link power-on/off functionality and can wake-up and achieve phase-lock in eight nanoseconds, the shortest switch time in record.
Researchers from Greece, Luxembourg and Spain analyzed and compared the cost and power consumption of different 400G transceivers. For the first time, according to the team, they predicted each transceiver's cost reduction trends over the next five years using a mathematical model. The researchers further evaluated the cost and power consumption of constructing and upgrading a data center based on Facebook's Fabric architecture, using different transceiver-installation technologies and providing cost-effective and power-efficient connectivity solutions for different sizes of data centers. They focused on ways in which different designs affect device costs.
A research team from Nokia reported the record setting, real-time, bi-directional transmission of 78 interleaved, 400 gigabit per second (Gb/s) channels with a 31.2 terabit per second (Tb/s) fiber capacity. They further reported that this cutting edge, "off-line" signal transmission mechanism, experimentally demonstrated just a few years ago, is now on-line as a real-time bi-directional transmission system.
