OFC 2014 show reports ‘flurry of activity’

14 Mar 2014

Over 550 exhibitors showcase the latest in optical networking, ROADMs, WDM, optical interconnects, and FTTx systems.

Hot on the heels of Photonics West 2014, The OFC (Optical Fiber Communications) conference and expo took place this week at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, welcoming “a flood of attendees”, according to the organizer, to attend discussions and conferences and visit the 550 exhibitors showing the latest in optical networking, ROADMs, WDM, optical interconnects, FTTx and the like.

The Market Watch conference opened with a state of the industry panel and a session on 100G and beyond. At the latter, presenters from companies such as Juniper, ADVA, NTT among others discussed the developments and deployments of commercially available next-gen systems offering 100G and above for the metro, regional and long-haul networks.

Considering the roadmap for the “Future of Optical Communications”, OIDA’s Tom Hausken gave an overview of the communications supply chain, noting that telecom services as a whole are now worth $3.34 trillion worldwide, with optical networking systems and optical components both in the $15 billion+ range. He noted the benefit of roadmaps to government programs such as Europe’s Photonics21 and to companies themselves. “There are a lot of road mapping efforts in optical communications out there today, from regional funding plans to project-specific roadmaps. This session was a priority for putting the developments in perspective, particularly considering the US National Photonics Initiative,” he said.

Corning names Outstanding Student Paper winner

During the show, the OSA Foundation and Corning announced that the 2014 Corning Outstanding Student Paper Competition winner, including a $1,500 grand prize, is Johannes von Lindeiner of the University of Cambridge, UK. Lindeiner was awarded top honors for his paper 100 Gb/s Uncooled DWDM using Orthogonal Coding for low-cost data communication Links.

Lindeiner was one of six finalists selected from more than 341 student paper submissions. Honorable mentions - and winners of $1000 each - were: Shohei Beppu, Tohoku University, Japan for 2048 QAM (66G) Single-Carrier Coherent Optical Transmission over 150 km with a Potential SE of 15.3 bit/s/Hz, and Samuel Olsson, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, for Linear and Nonlinear Transmission of 16-QAM Over 105 km Phase-Sensitive Amplified Link.

Acacia launches silicon photonics 100G transceiver

Acacia Communications, developer of “intelligent” transceivers for ultra-high speed fiber-optic transmission launched what it says is the first complete 100G coherent transceiver in a single silicon photonics integrated circuit (PIC) package. "Silicon photonics is typically considered for short-reach interconnects," said Chris Doerr, Acacia's Director of Photonic Integration. "But silicon photonics is also well suited for coherent transceivers, because it is ideal for manipulating optical polarizations. Co-packaged with linear drivers and trans-impedance amplifiers Acacia's PIC consumes around 4W.”

OE Solutions announces $7.7m IPO

OE Solutions, South Korea, a global supplier of optoelectronic transceiver solutions, announced a “successful” initial public offering, which happened at the end of February, 2014. The company raised US $7.7m by offering 777,000 new shares through KOSDAQ (Korea Securities Dealers Automated Quotation) at 10,000 Korean won per share (about US $10). “We are happy that we have achieved the first milestone in the company’s journey,” said Dr Y.K. Park, CEO. “We will accelerate the company’s growth by injecting the proceeds from this IPO towards further R&D activities manufacturing expansion.”

Sumitomo Electric demos 100G EDR active optical cable

Sumitomo Electric Industries, debuted its VCSEL-based products designed for next-generation enterprise data centers, including the industry’s first 100G EDR active optical cable (AOC).

Extremely fast bandwidth growth and demand for rich media are putting tremendous pressure on storage and computing resources.

Available with the QSFP+ form factor, Sumitomo’s AOCs offer a maximum aggregate bandwidth of 100 Gb/s. Offering performance advantages for InfiniBand QSFP+ and 40/100 Gbit/s Ethernet applications, AOC supports distances up to 100m while reducing weight, density, and power consumption over traditional copper alternatives.

Industry announces ‘OpenOptics’ MSA

Mellanox Technologies, a developer of interconnect solutions for data center servers and storage systems, and Ranovus, a provider of multi-terabit interconnect solutions announced the founding of an industry consortium to standardize Wavelength Division Multiplexing for an interoperable 100G WDM standard for 2 km reach. The OpenOptics multi-source agreement combines 1550 nm WDM laser and silicon photonics for QSFP-based solutions enabling the lowest cost, highest density, and highest bandwidth single mode fiber (SMF) connectivity, significantly improving terabit-scale data center infrastructure ROI. Further information at the OpenOptics website.

Fujitsu and Bright House Networks trial 400G Super Channel Technology

Fujitsu Network Communications and Bright House Networks successfully trialed Fujitsu’s 400G transport technology, increasing flexibility of the cable systems’ existing network.

Field testing was conducted using Fujitsu’s 400G optical networking transceivers inside FujitsuFlashwave 9500 Packet Optical Networking Platforms. Bright House Networks is the sixth largest owner and operator of cable systems in the USA, offering its more than 2.4 million customers video, high-speed data and voice services.

Lightip’s ‘simplest, smallest’ tunable laser TOSA

Lightip Technologies, Hangzhou, China, has developed what it is calling the “simplest and smallest” tunable laser based on its patented technologies. Widely wavelength-tunable semiconductor lasers are key components for next-generation optical network applications. In partnership with Zhejiang University, Lightip has developed a simple and compact tunable laser based on its half-wave-coupled V-cavity structure. "With the introduction of such a simple and compact tunable laser, system designers can be more aggressive in using tunable lasers when devising their systems and creating standards for access and data center networks," said Dr. Jian-Jun He, CTO.

About the Author

Matthew Peach is a contributing editor to optics.org.