OFC 2026 to showcase high-speed optical networking and interoperability

12 Mar 2026

“Sold-out exhibition, as AI-driven network demand fuels surge of major product debuts and breakthroughs.”

OFC is expecting a strong slate of exhibitor innovations.

A wave of optical innovations will be showcased in California, over the coming week, as the Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC 2026) presents the latest breakthroughs in optical communications and networking. This year’s expo take place at Los Angeles Convention Center from 15 to 19 March, bringing together industry leaders, experts, academia, media, analysts and students to explore the latest in optical technologies.

Conference plenary sessions: The OFC Plenary Session takes place on Tuesday, 17 March (08:00–10:00 PDT) at the JW Marriott next to the Los Angeles Convention Center, featuring:

Julie Sheridan Eng, Chief Technology Officer, Coherent
Alexis Bjorlin, Senior Vice President, AI Infrastructure, NVidia
Siegbert Martin, Chief Technology Officer, Tesat-Spacecom

Exhibition: The exhibition features more than 700 companies representing the entire ecosystem of optical networking and communications. OFC attendees have the opportunity to explore groundbreaking technologies, innovative optical networking solutions, specialty fiber products, optical components, devices, systems, test equipment and software.

OFC also provides startups with the opportunity to make their debuts alongside industry leaders. The event also offers a range of solutions to critical global issues such as quantum networking, artificial intelligence (AI), space optics, and data center connectivity. You can view an interactive exhibition floorplan here

Exhibitor announcements and debuts

With the industry convening in one place, OFC is expecting to see a strong slate of exhibitor news and product updates across the optical communications ecosystem, including announcements submitted through OFC’s First News program, an advance preview of exhibitor announcements. A selection includes:

Acacia will highlight its coherent pluggables and client optics portfolio, including field-proven 400G products and the industry’s first 800GZR+ with interop PCS for AI-era networking.
Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (AOI) will showcase its readiness for CPO and NPO architectures with transceivers through 1.6T, 6.4T on-board optics demos and a new narrow-linewidth pump laser.
CEA-Leti and NcodiN will announce a strategic collaboration to industrialize optical interposer technology on a 300 mm photonics process for next-generation semiconductors and AI chips.
LightSpeed Photonics will launch what it calls the industry’s first solderable near-packaged optical interconnect technology, positioned as a low-power alternative between CPO and LPO.
OIF (the Optical Internetworking Forum) will bring multi-vendor interoperability to life with 40 member companies demonstrating the building blocks behind AI-era data center networks, from coherent optics to CEI-224G, live 448G, CMIS and co-packaging.
Semtech will unveil a new family of 224G per lane TIAs and MZM drivers built for the shift toward linear optical interconnects across 800G, 1.6T and 3.2T architectures.
Taara will unveil Taara Photonics and Taara Beam, a solid-state wireless optical communications platform based on optical phased arrays.
VIAVI Solutions will showcase validation tools for next-generation AI fabrics, including demos focused on 1.6T Ethernet, PCIe over optics and high-density test capabilities.

Much more news of exhibitor announcements, booth presentations, and demonstrations is available on the Exhibitor News section of the OFC website.