Full details of all sessions taking place in the Market Focus theatre can be found below. View the full timetable here.
Monday 1st November
Company: LightCounting
Title: Adoption of Silicon Photonics accelerated in 2018-2020
Speakers: Vladimir Kozlov, Founder and CEO
It is clear by now that Silicon Photonics (SiP) is making a very significant impact on the market. Sales of SiP-based products started to ramp in 2014, accelerated in 2018 and reached almost $2 billion in 2020, accounting for 25% of the total market for optical transceivers. Numerous foundries offer design and manufacturing of SiP optical engines, making this technology available to a wide range of suppliers and accelerating innovation. Co-packaged optics and Integration of optical chips with coherent and PAM4 DSPs will solidify market position of SiP technology over this decade.
Company: Intel
Title: Integrated Silicon Photonics for High-Bandwidth Data Center Connectivity
Speakers: Scott Schube, Sr. Director of Strategic Marketing
Data center traffic continues to grow at an exponential rate and is generating a large demand for optical transceivers at ever increasing data rates and bandwidth densities with reduced cost per bit and power consumption per bit. We’ll review the recent trends for pluggable transceivers from 100G to 1.6T and discuss how continued bandwidth scaling is driving the need for a much tighter integration of optics and electronics. Deployments of co-packaged optics (CPO) at scale will require wafer level fabrication processes to manufacture photonic ICs with a high density of integrated components, advanced 2.5/3D packaging to integrate multiple electrical and photonic ICs, and appropriate system level thermal and mechanical solutions.
Company: Lightwave Logic
Title: Advancing integrated photonics with electro-optic polymer modulators
Speaker: Michael Lebby, CEO (in person)
Electro-optic polymer modulators are now poised to impact data-heavy applications such as datacenter networks, high-performance computing and telecom applications with their inherent high speed and very low power properties. Electro-optic polymers are now additive to integrated photonics platforms such as silicon photonics to increase performance significantly. Two types of polymer designs that are called Polymer Plus™ and Polymer Slot™ have been developed that are compatible with integrated photonics platforms and fabricated in commercial silicon foundries using standard PDKs (process development kits).
The talk will discuss the latest results on stable and reliable EO polymers for integrated photonics platforms that have demonstrated electro-optical and electrical 3dB bandwidths that are in excess of 100GHz. These highspeed, low-power solutions provide a vehicle for next generation PIC (photonic integrated circuit) designs. The electro-optical materials have competitive performance characteristics both at 1310nm as well as 1550nm operating wavelengths. The development of 1310nm advanced polymers opens up opportunities for short distance optical interconnects that are expected to positively impact the datacenter and high-performance computing market.
This talk will also review the latest work in photonics roadmaps on both the integrated photonics (PIC) level as well as PIC packaging level. The roadmaps are a working, living document that helps plot out PIC platform challenges, opportunities, and directions for a broad portfolio of stakeholders over the next decade. The roadmaps review next generation aggregated data rates of 1600 and 3200 Gbps as well as multi-Tbps optical switching solutions, and more specifically, how these challenges can be addressed by polymer-based technologies.
Company: Ayar Labs UK Ltd
Title: Optical I/O for Chip-to-Chip Communications
Speakers: Hugo Saleh, VP of Marketing and Business Development; Managing Director Ayar Labs UK Ltd
A new connectivity solution is needed to meet the ever-growing bandwidth needs of data-intensive applications, low power interconnects, and new innovative heterogeneous and disaggregated system architectures. In-package Optical I/O is poised to disrupt performance, cost, and efficiency curves and create a new path forward for composable computing. In this talk, Hugo Saleh will present advancements in building a new generation of chiplet and multi-wavelength laser solutions that deliver up to 1000x bandwidth density at 1/10th the power of standard electrical I/O. Additionally, he will share the impact of chip-to-chip connectivity on next-generation computing systems for AI/HPC, telecommunications and intelligent edge.
Company: Sicoya GmbH
Title: Optics in Cloud Computing -> 100G/400/800 GbE optics
Speakers: Dr Sven Otte, CEO, Founder
The introduction of 100G per lambda optics is ongoing and the industry is yet again entering into another iteration of debating about how to define next generation interconnects. A number of different approaches have been proposed such as co-packaging optics with switch ASICS and defining new pluggable modules that can support up to 1.6T utilizing 200G per lambda. In this presentation we are going to review the individual options and assess them in terms of performance, cost of ownership and maturity of the ecosystem. We will highlight how Silicon Photonics is going to play an important role in all those solutions and provide an update of the most recent technology developments in this field.
Company: Avicena
Title: Novel LED based parallel optical interconnects with 10Tbps/mm2 @ < 0.5pJ/bit for chip-to-chip communications
Speakers: Christoph Pfistner, Marketing & Business Development
Avicena is developing a highly parallel LED based optical link technology targeting up to 10m reach for chip-to-chip interconnects in High-Performance and Cloud computing, as well as processor-to-memory disaggregation applications. The technology is based on arrays of novel GaN high-speed micro emitters, leveraging the LED display ecosystem, and Si based PDs integrated into a single CMOS chip and linked with multi-core fiber. At 10Tbps/mm2 @ < 0.5pJ/bit combined with excellent reliability over the industrial temperature range of -40°C to +150°C this new class of optical interconnects eliminates the inherent power, reach and interference limitations of electrical links in chip-to-chip communications.
Company: Source Photonics
Title: The evolution and challenges to 800g optics and beyond
Speakers: Frank Chang
Ethernet data rates have been increasing rapidly. Optical transceivers capable of supporting 400Gb/s have commercially deployed to wrap up in volume for data centers. Source Photonics will review the evolving state of proliferate 400G technologies for these applications and the deployment requirements such technologies should meet. We will look into next gen 800G and beyond technologies available for even up to 80km. Finally, we will review how to apply 200G per lambda technologies for emerging 800G and/or 1.6Tb/s applications such like 2xFR4 and LR8.
Company: Arista
Title: The Road to 800G and Beyond
Speakers: Andreas Bechtolsheim
With the ever increasing demand for more bandwidth in cloud data centers, the three most important attributes for data center optics are cost, power, and compatibility. In my presentation I will discuss how the transition to 800G and 1600G data center optics will enable cloud networks to evolve in the most cost effective, power efficient and compatible fashion.
Company: Marvell
Title: Post Moore Data Center Networks for 800GbE/1.6TbE
Speakers: Radha Nagarajan, SVP & CTO, Optical and Copper Connectivity Business Group
We will discuss the advanced building blocks for DSP, Silicon Photonics, TIA and Drivers to enable the 800GbE/1.6TbE for inter and intra data center applications.
In addition, we will also discuss the modulation format and system tradeoffs that are needed to enable these data rates with the available technology.
Company: OIF
Title: Deployment of 400ZR and the ongoing OIF work to define 800ZR/LR
Speakers: TBC
400ZR coherent deployment is underway and showing a strong ecosystem already exists for this new interoperable standard developed by the OIF. In this presentation an OIF expert will give an overview of 400ZR and discuss its deployment status, including ongoing maintenance. The presentation will then give an overview of current 800ZR and 800LR technical work to create the next core network architecture components and looking to bring coherent networking into the datacenter.
Tuesday 2nd November
Company: China Mobile
Title: Readiness of 50G-PON in terms of technology, standard and ecosystem
Speakers: Junwei Li, Senior Expert on Optical Access
The ITU-T has recently consented a series of standards related to 50Gb/s passive optical network (50G-PON), which represents a significant leap from the current 10G-PON systems. Such an advance is made possible by innovations in optical transceiver components, digital signal processing based channel equalization, and enhanced forward error correction. 50G-PON also introduces new capabilities such as low-latency operation via cooperative dynamic bandwidth allocation and expanded cryptographic features. With these improved capabilities, 50G-PON is well positioned to meet the demanding requirements of emerging services. In this talk, the readiness of 50G-PON in terms of technology, standard and ecosystem will be presented.
Company: EPIC – European Photonics Industry Consortium
Title: Emerging Industrial Manufacturing Requirements Including Private 5G Communications, IIoT Sensors, and Security
Speakers: Tracey Vanik, Head of Photonics Market Research
Industrial Applications increasingly utilize a wide variety of photonic sensors to enable real-time dynamic process monitoring. Supporting the high bandwidth images, 5G networks are emerging as the best solution to support Industry 4.0 process communications as well as the information from numerous remote sensors. Yet there are additional elements that must be taken into consideration for successful operations – including timing and security. This presentation will examine the important role photonics plays in industrial applications including 5G Private Networks, real-time imaging & equipment control, synchronization, high-speed connectivity, and even security for connected IIoT devices.
Company: Ericsson Telecommunicazioni SpA
Title: Can Optical keep up with evolving RAN requirements. ?
Speakers: Peter Finn, Strategic Head of Product Line Optical
From 1 to 5G, Radio technology continues to advance. Operators are constantly challenged to stick or twist with respect to when and where to invest in a very public competition to provide the highest performing network. With performance measures openly available, and operators under pressure to deliver shareholder value, Can optical technology keep pace and help provide faster, & more flexible solutions at the right cost ?
Company: QXP Technologies Inc
Title: Innovative single wavelength BIDI transceivers will reshape optical communications
Speakers: Spark Xu
This presentation will introduce the innovative single wavelength transceiver, which is different from the conventional circulator or 3-dB splitter type solutions, and which has superior performance and cost. A brief description of the mechanism of single wavelength BIDI is given, and test-bed system results will highlight the excellent performance QXP’s 50G BIDI modules. This innovative technology has three major advantages: I. It simplifies the carrier’s inventory management and network construction; II. It doubles the wavelength capacity; III. It reduces up/down link time differences down to the ps level, thus meeting more rigid specs of next generation systems. The technology will bring significant improvements to optical networks.
Company: LightCounting
Title: Adoption of Silicon Photonics accelerated in 2018-2020
Speakers: Vladimir Kozlov, Founder and CEO
It is clear by now that Silicon Photonics (SiP) is making a very significant impact on the market. Sales of SiP-based products started to ramp in 2014, accelerated in 2018 and reached almost $2 billion in 2020, accounting for 25% of the total market for optical transceivers. Numerous foundries offer design and manufacturing of SiP optical engines, making this technology available to a wide range of suppliers and accelerating innovation. Co-packaged optics and Integration of optical chips with coherent and PAM4 DSPs will solidify market position of SiP technology over this decade.
Company: Cisco
Title: Routed Optical Networking
Speakers: Lorenzo Ghioni, Director of Product Management
The Routed Optical Network is a new paradigm for networking that delivers improved operational efficiencies. The architecture has consistently demonstrated a 45% total TCO savings over traditional architectures in over 50 network modeling examples. With a single service layer based upon IP, flexible management tools can leverage telemetry and model-driven programmability to streamline lifecycle operations. This simplified architecture integrates open data models and standard APIs, enabling a provider to focus on automation initiatives for a simpler topology. Network automation substantially increases network efficiency to lower the cost per bit so more services can be deployed to provide better profitability.
Company: Lumentum
Title: Extending OpenROADM to the Network Edge
Speakers: Raj Nagarajan, Product Line Manager
The OpenROADM MSA has recently released an updated specification that extends ROADM capability from the existing Metro-core application, to cover aggregation networks in the Metro-access where fixed OADM has historically been prevalent. This presentation will discuss supported architectures at the edge and interoperability with Metro-core OpenROADM. The key differences between the Edge ROADM optical specification and the existing OpenROADM specification will be discussed, along with how the YANG models differ. The presentation will discuss the novel methods by which cost can be reduced to enable ROADM at the Edge and will propose potential WSS solutions for these applications.
Company: Corning
Title: High capacity pathways – Fiber innovations for a connected future
Speakers: Roshene McCool, Market & Technology Development Manager
The need for effective delivery of communication networks has never been greater, as bandwidth demands from users grow and the services connected to communication infrastructures increase in diversity. As network connectivity and complexity increases, the ability to deliver increased capacity over more pathways has become the focus of innovation in fiber and cable. This presentation will explore the options available to increase capacity and deliver more pathways, and explore the fiber innovations that will support multi-service networks of the future.
Wednesday 3rd November
Company: II-VI
Title: Optical Communications for Satellite Networking: From Free Space Optics to Optics in Space !
Speakers: Sanjai Parthasarathi, Chief Marketing Office
World’s hunger for data connectivity is insatiable. COVID has shown us the importance of high speed connectivity to our lives including in critical applications like telehealth. Connecting underserved communities is a UNESCO priority and Satellite networks are a promising tool. This emerging ‘New Space’ market is at an inflection point. We expect New Space to leverage Optical Communications innovations originally developed for terrestrial. The status and evolution of this important emerging market segment within optical communications will be discussed, reviewing trends, sizing opportunities as well as trying separate fact from fiction !
Company: Intel
Title: High volume integrated Silicon Photonics for next generation LiDAR and other sensing applications
Speakers: Robert Blum, Sr. Director of Marketing and New Business
Many next generation sensing applications require the integration of multiple and sometimes dozens of emitters and receivers. This high level of integration makes these applications well suited for silicon photonics, particularly in markets that require the ability to manufacture in high volume. This presentation will discuss progress and challenges in using silicon photonics for coherent FMCW LiDAR applications and review other applications that could potentially benefit from a mature silicon photonics platform with integrated lasers, amplifiers, and receivers.
Company: Infinera
Title: Extending Coherent to the Edge – How and Why Now?
Speakers: Dave Welch, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer
The world is on the verge of wide-scale 5G deployment, and enterprises around the globe are moving to cloud applications to increase productivity and lower costs. This is fueling ever-growing demand for next-generation connectivity services with higher capacity, more flexibility, and simpler operations. While existing access networks carry all today’s services, their limitations prevent them from meeting tomorrow’s capacity and agility requirements. This session describes how point-to-multipoint coherent optical pluggables enable service providers to push coherent to the access while leveraging existing infrastructure (e.g., PON) and deliver higher capacity (40x vs. XGS-PON), better flexibility, and 70+% TCO reduction.
Company: Acacia, now part of Cisco
Title: Next steps in coherent interface standardization
Speakers: Tom Williams, Director of Marketing
Standardization of coherent technology has taken a big step forward at 400G supporting applications in DCI and service provider networks. Looking toward the next generation, there are opportunities to increase speeds and expand the application space to address both shorter and longer reach interfaces using pluggable coherent optics. Meanwhile, silicon photonics is fast becoming the preferred material for high-speed coherent interfaces. The presentation will analyze how these trends are expected to influence next generation networks and investment in coherent technology.
Company: CW-WDM MSA
Title: A New Specification for Multi-Wavelength Optical Laser Sources for Advanced Integrated Optics
Speakers: Chris Cole, Chair, CW-WDM MSA; Advisor, II-VI Incorporated
The CW-WDM MSA, dedicated to defining and promoting specifications for multi-wavelength advanced integrated optics, recently announced the release of its first official specification for 8, 16, and 32 wavelength optical sources to support advances in datacentre bandwidth density and energy efficiency, for high performance computing, artificial intelligence, and other emerging applications. Chris Cole, Chair of the MSA, will present details of the new specification and how it creates great opportunities for transceiver and laser suppliers to develop innovative products.
Company: HyperLight Corporation
Title: Integrated lithium-niobate electro-optic platform, an emerging solution enabling a wide range of high speed and power efficient applications
Speakers: Mian Zhang, Ph.D.
Energy consumption in optical networking for ethernet, data centers and 5G is soaring because of the rapidly growing data traffic. The bottleneck is the limited voltage-bandwidth performance of existing integrated photonics solutions, which poses a serious challenge for meeting the tight power consumption requirements from network builders. In this session, HyperLight will talk about their breakthrough solution which is an integrated photonics platform based on thin-film lithium niobate. This scalable photonics platform offers sub-volt electro-optic modulators with a 3-dB bandwidth > 100 GHz as well as monolithically integrated ultralow loss passive optical components. Up to 700 Gb/s IMDD single channel and 1.55 Tb/s coherent transmission have been demonstrated on the platform. This emerging platform would save building and running costs for network operators and enable a wide range of high speed and power efficient applications.
Company: Consortium for On-Board Optics
Title: Photonics integration and digital silicon photonics, Optoelectronic integration trends and applications
Speakers: Brad Booth, Chairman and President, COBO and Principal Engineer, Microsoft
Is it right to continue the proven path of pluggable modules or time to adopt a new deployment model involving on-board optics or co-packaged optics? The trend of moving optics from the faceplate into the enclosure and onto the main PCB (on-board optics) or onto the switch package (co-packaged optics) represents an attractive opportunity to shorten electrical channels and minimize the number of transitions. COBO established its CPO and OBO Working Groups, collaborations of end users and technology suppliers uniquely positioned to address guidance topics including trade-offs, enabling technologies, adoption paths, and potential impact on datacenter network architectures.
Company: OIF
Title: Co-Packaged Optics: The OIF’s Work to Standardize Higher Integration Levels for Next-Generation Data Center Systems
Speakers: Jeff Hutchins, Ranovus, Director, CTO Office
Co-Packaged Optics are proposing smaller form-factor and lower power solutions to enable the ever increasing levels of integration required for the networking future. In this presentation an OIF expert will give an overview of the current standards emerging across a range of applications and use cases for co-packaged optics. As one of the hot button topics in the technology sector at the moment, the OIF will highlight why standards are required and some of the technical challenges currently on the table that must be solved to enable this innovative new technology for success.
Company: Omida
Title: Data center optics – 400G and above rollout and the promise of co-packaged optics
Speakers: Lisa Huff, CDCMP®, Senior Principal Analyst
ICP data centers are quickly adopting 400G optics inside their data centers and are looking towards the next progression of network technology to simplify and reduce cost and power consumption. This presentation will summarize the high-speed network connectivity adoption, ICP data center network evolution and its needs. Co-packaged optics (CPO) is one technology that promises to reduce cost and power consumption inside the data center, but can components companies develop the ecosystem fast enough to compete with the tried-and-true pluggable optics solutions? The advantages and risks of CPO will be discussed.
Company: fibeReality, LLC
Title: TBC
Speakers: Mark Lutkowitz, Principal
Both the new pluggable solution, which was just announced, and CPO have major technological and practical challenges. The timing of OSFP-XD, at least in establishing a foothold is expected to take place much sooner for intra-data center applications at the hyperscalers. CPO has more of a potential play more quickly with other types of apps. The presentation will address the latest information on why pluggables will continue to be viable at least until the arrival of 200T switch ASICs. The fact that Near Package Optics (NPO) is still being considered demonstrates the long process in developing a viable, cost-effective CPO.