Monday 2nd October – Morning:

Topic: Modules/Sub systems

 

10:00 – 10:15 Empowering the Future: Advancements in Programmable Photonics with iPronics’ SmartLight Technology
Ana González   Director of Strategic Partnerships IPRONICS PROGRAMMABLE PHOTONICS S.L.iPronics pioneers a groundbreaking multipurpose photonic processor, revolutionizing the application development landscape in the field of silicon photonics. Utilizing a unique hexagonal configuration of 2×2 Mach-Zehnder Interferometers (MZIs), our technology enables the generation of diverse photonic functions, including interconnects, switches, filters, and matrix multiplications. With automated algorithms and dedicated software, our platform empowers complex applications in quantum computing, optical communications, and sensing. The disruptive nature of our technology lies in its ability to deliver higher processing capabilities while significantly reducing power consumption compared to electronic processors. iPronics’ SmartLight technology offers adaptability, parallelization, and automatic optimization, with commercial availability and the potential for transforming various industries.
10:20 – 10:35 Linear-drive Pluggable Optics (LPO) for Power-Efficient AI/ML Optical Interconnects
Hacene Chaouch, Distinguished Engineer. Arista Networks
Linear-drive pluggable optics (LPO) have recently emerged as a promising alternative to meeting the pressing power and cost efficiency needs of AI/ML connectivity. In this presentation, we will review the latest LPO performance and discuss the technology opportunities and challenges.
10:40 – 10:55 The future of pluggable modules at 1.6 Tb/s
Mark Nowell, Cisco Fellow, QSFP-DD MSA co-chair, OSFP MSA co-chair Cisco Systems
With the advent of 400G, pluggable optical modules pushed to performance levels and capabilities never seen before on such devices.  The challenge to integrate all reaches from copper cables to coherent optics into a common form factor and meet the high-speed signal integrity and thermal requirements was met.  The networking industry is today building 800 Gb/s module-based equipment and 800 Gb/s modules and are now looking ahead at 1.6 Tb/s.  This presentation will focus on the advances being brought to make these 1.6 Tb/s pluggables possible.
11:00 – 11:15 Commercializing reliable hybrid electro-optic polymer modulators
Michael Lebby, CEO Lightwave Logic Inc
Electro-optic polymer modulators, and especially slot modulators are a hot topic in the industry today as the industry strives to increase modulation speed while reducing optical network equipment power consumption. Results will be shown that enable not only 800G transceivers, but 1600G, and 3200G also.    EO polymers offer 4 key advantages:  1)Exceptionally high EO bandwidth in excess of 110GHz, and with plasmonic devices over 250GHz   2)Low voltage drive of under 1V (which allows direct drive from ICs, DSPs etc., and eliminates driver chips)  3)Very small footprint and size, which allows simple integration with PICs and silicon photonics and are ideal for pluggable and Onboard-optic transceiver form-factors  4)EO polymers can be easily handled in standard silicon fabs using standard PDKs    The talk will discuss the latest results with commercial grade electro-optic polymer materials that are being licensed for device applications for datacom at 1310 and 1550nm.  As well as silicon foundry fabricated silicon slot modulator polymer PIC device designs for use with integrated photonics platforms.  Material and device demonstration will show polymers exceeding electro-optical and electrical 3dB bandwidths of 110GHz, low voltage, and very small form factors.  Polymer electro-optical materials have competitive performance characteristics both at 1310nm as well as 1550nm operating wavelengths.  Reliability and stability results will be presented to show the robustness of the technology platform with respect to thermal and photostability that will exceed over 9k hrs.  Plans and details for CSP – chip scale packaging for polymer PICs will be shown from the performance of dielectric sealants such as Atomic Layer Deposition at temperatures suitable for organic, polymer material.     The talk will also show how the performance of EO polymer modulators can extend to not only 400 and 800Gbps transceivers, but also 1600, 3200 and beyond using the natural bandwidth characteristics of Perkinamine® chromophore organic material.  With EO bandwidths that exceed 250GHz, single line data rates that exceed 200Gbps are possible which opens a path for multi-Tbps data rate transceiver designs.  Further, it will be shown that the EO polymer technology has the potential to extend the technology roadmap significantly over this decade.
11:20 – 11:35 Semiconductorization of Photonics using Silicon Optical Interposer
Raju Kankipati, SVP/GM POET USA POET TECHNOLOGIES
The use of silicon optical interposer as an integration platform enables wafer scale assembly and testing, passive attachment of lasers and other key components and monolithic integration of elements like MUX, DMUX and splitters/combiners. The close integration of the electronic and photonic components on a low loss platform like the Silicon optical interposer improves RF performance, reduces power consumption and lowers overall assembly cost. Implementation of TSVs on the Optical Interposer based Engines eliminates wire bonds and brings true semiconductorization of Photonics to a reality and offers a scalable and cost-efficient solution for large scale datacenter and AI deployments
11:40 – 11:55 Silicon Photonics Solutions for AI/Data Center Applications
Rang-Chen Yu, Sr. Vice President SiFotonics Technologies
Recent explosion of generative AI applications is fast becoming a key driver for high bandwidth, low cost and low power optical connectivity solutions for networking of large number of xPUs for AI applications within hyper data center infrastructure. In this talk, we will discuss silicon photonics based solutions and roadmaps supporting AI/Data Center applications, including low power linear drive pluggable optics (LPO), co-packaged optics (CPO), and next generation 1.6T/3.2T IMDD and Coherent technologies and products.
12:00 – 12:15 The Perspectives of Linear Optical Pluggables (LPO) for AI/ML Clusters
Frank Chang, Chief Engineer and CTO Source Photonics
Linear Optical Pluggables (LPO) emerge as a new hot and interesting area and provide the viable and cost-effective deployment path for replacing CPO/NPO and OBO development, which was the topic discussed extensively for past few years. LPO leverages the new latest high BW technologies including EML, THLN etc and demonstrates the same power efficiency as direct drive CPO at 100G per lambda with scalable to 200G. This talk will address the development challenges and performance details from module vendor perspective and demonstrate the robust performance for how to implement LPO transceivers into switch environment for AL/ML clusters. We will also address migration path that takes front-panel Linear Pluggable Optics from 100G to 200G generation systems.
12:20 – 12:35 Power and Integration: InP for Coherent Transceivers at the Network Edge
Harald Graber, Chief Commercial Officer, EFFECT Photonics
“Coherent optical transceivers face demanding criteria when deployed in network edge applications for mobile networks and data centers. These transceivers must possess sufficient output power to cover links spanning up to 80 km. Moreover, they must function reliably within the industrial temperature (I-Temp) range, as they often operate in uncontrolled network edge environments. This transceiver platform should also handle a potential expansion into the optical O-band for enhanced capacity.
The Indium Phosphide (InP) photonics platform proves highly suitable to fulfill all these requirements. InP facilitates full integration of active components onto a single chip, thereby minimizing interconnect losses and ensuring the delivery of the necessary power for network edge applications. It is a versatile solution that can support both C-band and O-band operation. InP can provide either a fully integrated transceiver solution or efficient and powerful active components for transceivers based on other photonic platforms such as silicon. Furthermore, InP opens up the possibility of driving the optical engine directly from a digital signal processor. Altogether, InP enables a wealth of options for network edge transceivers.”

Monday 2nd October – Afternoon

Topic: Modules/Sub systems

13:00 – 13:15 Coherent Optics – Changing architectures and emerging market segments
Tom Williams Acacia
Coherent technology has revolutionized optical transport networks, leveraging Moore’s Law and pushing performance to the Shannon Limit. Early implementations were big, bulky and expensive, but today’s designs break that paradigm. 400G pluggables have ramped to volumes well beyond previous coherent generations and the industry is looking toward coherent adoption in new applications, such as access networks and intra-data center interfaces, that promise even greater scale. The presentation will discuss the path forward for the industry and how vendors can address these diverse opportunities in an efficient manner.
13:20 -13:35 ICP data centers drive the optical components market
Lisa Huff, Senior Principal Analyst, Optical Components Omdia
Internet Content Providers such as AWS, Google and Microsoft require cutting edge optical components to run their massive networks. This presentation will cover how their networks are progressing and what optics are being used in them. It will highlight their optical component roadmap to the future as well.
13:40 – 13:55 Preparing the way for 800G ZR 
Paul Brooks  Technology and applications lead – optical transport VIAVI solutions
400G pluggable coherent modules have become widely available and 800G client optics are gaining traction. With the latest standards for 800G ZR now firming up we need to be prepared for development and validation of 800G ZR – from coherent DSP to integration into modules and end systems – many new challenges are ahead.  800G client optics exposed new challenges with 100G SERDES, 800G ZR coherent adds new and significant challenges in areas like power/cooling, module management and traffic and data modes.  This presentation will review the challenges for 800G ZR and plot out the key areas to understand and master for product success.
14:00 – 14:15 Why Linear Drive is Not Plug-and-Pray
Karen Liu  Product Manager Nubis Communications
Linear drive, or the use of optical transceivers without optical DSP retimers, is a leading new approach for minimizing total power consumption in the data center. It achieves similar power savings as CPO while maintaining pluggable usability. But at first glance, it looks like old-school optics from the era of 25G per lane, incapable of dealing with PAM4 let alone challenging 100G/lane electrical channels.   In fact, linear drive is based on a more sophisticated yet simple-to-understand  partitioning of electrical and optical impairments and the resulting allocation of electronic compensation for them. This talk will illustrate how the linear drive architecture is made robust today, exemplified by results from  Nubis’ optical engine, and present directions of how the architecture can be extended in future.
14:20 – 14:35 Harnessing Optical I/O for the Advancement of Generative AI
Terry Thorn, VP of Commercial Operations Ayar Labs
The rapid rise of generative AI models has ushered in a new era of artificial intelligence applications. However, the computational demands of these models will soon outpace the capabilities of current computing architectures, necessitating a paradigm shift in system architectures and interconnect technologies. In-package optical I/O offers dramatically higher bandwidth, lower latency, and reduced power consumption, crucial for handling the massive amounts of data and complex computations involved in generative AI models.  In his presentation, Terry Thorn, VP of Commercial Operations at Ayar Labs, will outline the latest progress with in-package optical I/O to overcome the limitations of current computing architectures and enable the seamless scaling and deployment of generative AI models. Terry’s presentation will include the latest developments in advanced packaging and system integration, as well as manufacturability, ecosystem expansion and industry demand to foster the continued advancement of generative AI.
14:40 – 14:55 Linear Pluggable Optics for Data Centers: A Transceiver Implementer’s Perspective
Vipul Bhatt  VP Marketing, Datacom Vertical Coherent Corp
Whenever a new link architecture is proposed, leading transceiver makers are faced with the question: what is the nature of this opportunity, and what are the challenges that may not be apparent initially? We will examine linear pluggable optics along three axes — power consumption, complexity, and customer adoption. In the overall context, how much power savings is realistic, and what are the tradeoffs for a manufacturable transceiver design? If complexity is a proxy for cost, how do we optimize it? And what is the best way to assure link accountability, a key condition of successful customer adoption?
15:00 – 15:15 Demands of data center test requirements
Greg LeCheminant Keysight
Dramatic growth is predicted for data centers leading to a similar surge in the consumption of optical transceivers used for data center connections.  Constant pressure to reduce costs conflicts with the reality of next generation transceivers employing higher port counts and operating at higher signal rates.  This presentation will examine conventional test methods and how they must change to realize true reductions in the cost of test, allow efficient testing of high port count devices including CPO and NPO, and consider what will be required to test 200G lanes.
15:20  – 15:35 Vertical Line Cards: Potential Long-Term Sustainability of Optical Pluggables Business
Mark Lutkowitz, Principal fibeReality, LLC
At ECOC 2022, an invited paper on a new design promised that in shifting away from horizontal line cards, the advantages valued by users with front pluggable optics could be retained in the next decade, including helping to enable the OSFP-XD form factor in the short term. This presentation provides a due diligence assessment, evaluating the progress made in the last year with moving the VLC concept forward in the marketplace, while addressing the perceived technical and cost hurdles from prospective customers, especially the hyperscalers. A projection of the size of the commercial impact by VLCs is given as well.
15:40 – 16:30 Panel 1: DCI Towards 100T and beyond
Moderator: Frank Chang, Source Photonics
Speakers:
Andreas Bechtelsheim, Arista
Yawei Yin, Microsoft
Samuel Liu, Marvell
Peter Winzer, Nubis
Eric Bernier, Huawei/IPEC

Tuesday 3rd October – Morning

Topic: Components/IC/PIC/Fiber

 

10:00- 10:15 Terrestrial core networks: Future needs for cable density and high fiber count cables
Lidia Galdino Corning
Over the last several years, core network traffic has seen a compound annual growth rate of approximately 30%. Historically, the increase in required network capacity was accommodated by increasing spectral efficiency (enabled by innovations in coherent transponder technology) and deploying more fiber. We now have evidence that per-fiber capacity is approaching the so-called Shannon limit – the maximum rate at which data can be reliably transmitted, leaving little room for further capacity improvements over a single fiber pair. As a result, the role of optical fibers and cables in maintaining core network capacity growth rate has become more prominent than ever before. This presentation will describe the high-density fiber and cable solutions required to meet future network needs.
10:20 – 10:35 Analog Receive Optics(ARO) – A Robust Alternative to LPO
Drew Guckenberger, Vice President – High Speed Interconnect MaxLinear, Inc.
Much industry attention is currently being given to Linear Pluggable Optics (LPO) due to its potential for reduced power and latency in 100G links. Despite these potential advantages, LPO comes with several challenges related to link robustness, variability and interoperability that could limit volume deployments. It is also not scalable to 200G/lane.  Here we discuss a compromise solution called Analog Receive Optics (ARO), with DSP functionality only on the optical transmit path. This solution provides significant power and latency reduction relative to traditional modules, but also addresses the key challenges of LPO: providing robust, interoperable, scalable solutions for next-gen networks.
10:40 – 10:55 Next Generation Photonic Integration and Packaging Solutions with Photonic Wire Bonding (PWB) and Facet-Attached Micro-Optical Elements
Thorsten Mayer, CEO Vanguard Automation GmbH
Photonic Wire Bonding allows to combine the complementary strengths of different optical integration platforms in advanced photonic multi-chip modules leading to compactness with high performance and great design flexibility. The technique relies on highly precise direct-write 3D laser lithography for printing of freeform single-mode waveguides between optical dies, thereby offering a path towards fully automated mass production without the need for active alignment. 3D nano-printing can also be used to fabricate facet-attached beam-shaping elements on optical chips and fibers, allowing for low-loss coupling with high alignment tolerance and for wafer-level probing of optical devices.
11:00 – 11:15 Future Pic Trends, Roadmaps complexity with InP
Luc Augustin Smart Photonics
The field of integrated photonics holds great promise for overcoming societal challenges in data and telecom, autonomous driving and healthcare in terms of cost, performance, and scalability. Similar to the semiconductor industry, the ever-increasing demands of various applications are driving the necessity for platform integration in photonics as well, enabling seamless integration of diverse functionalities into compact and efficient photonic devices. This high level of integration reduces footprint and drives down system level costs.
In this trend towards high levels of integration , Indium Phosphide (InP) seems to hold the best cards. It has emerged already as the material of choice for long-distance communication lasers, owing to its proven track record over several decades. Leveraging standardized fabrication processes, the cost and performance targets can be addressed. The key advantages of InP-based integration lie in its ability to fully integrate lasers, amplifiers, modulators, and passives, providing a flexible and reliable platform for building complex Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs). This comprehensive integration, coupled with improved manufacturing capabilities, paves the way for high-volume production at low cost while achieving enhanced performance levels.
11:20 – 11:35 Advances in InP Laser Arrays for Data Centre and Sensing Applications
Andrew McKee, Chief Technology Officer, Sivers Photonics
There is increasing demand for high precision laser sources for a range of applications. These include multi-wavelength DFB laser arrays supporting ultra-high external modulation formats around 1300nm, and high-power narrow linewidth lasers for FMCW Lidar. We will report on the latest developments including optimised laser design, wafer fab process technology trends, device parametric performance and reliability
11:40 – 11:55 VCSELs for >100Gb/s interconnects Gunter Larisch TRUMPF Photonic Components
Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have triggered an unprecedented demand for bandwidth to optically connect devices even at short distances. Such bandwidth demand goes along with a requirement to consume less and less energy per transferred bit. Directly modulated VCSEL-based interconnects traditionally provide lowest energy budget compared to other optical interconnects such as EMLs or Si-Photonic solutions. TRUMPF Photonic Components as a provider of VCSELs and corresponding photodiodes responds to this demand by presenting several options to increase data rate through increased bandwidth, strongly reduced noise performance to support higher order modulation schemes (e.g. PAM8), and the potential to use polarization multiplexing. Solutions and approaches for 100Gb/s and 200 Gb/s are discussed in this session.
12:00 – 12:15 Advances in Components for Datacom and Telecom Transceivers
 Julie Eng, CTO, Coherent
This talk will review advances in GaAs Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs), InP devices such as Electro-Absorption Modulated Lasers (EMLs) and Photonic Integrated Circuits, as well as Silicon Photonic devices supporting Datacom and Telecom Transceivers.
12:20 -12:35 Open Silicon Photonics as an enabling technology
Steven Alleston, Director Business Development OpenLight Photonics
Silicon Photonics has established itself as the leading technology for reducing cost and improving density for datacom and will be the foundational technology for markets as diverse as high performance computing, LIDAR and biosensing. Despite the potential benefits this technology offers, barriers to adoption remain which make it expensive and time consuming to convert concepts into PICs and PICs into products. Traditional solutions also miss key capabilities, specifically around how to generate and amplify light. The availability of Open PDKs in conjunction with Heterogeneous integration addresses these issues which opens up the technology for companies both big and small without requiring extensive investment in skilled engineers, processes and tools.

Tuesday 3rd October – Afternoon

Topic: Networking/systems/Service provider

13:00 – 13:15 Understanding vertical integration and the technology behind coherent pluggables
David F. Welch, Ph.D. co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer Infinera
In recent years, coherent pluggable transceivers have emerged as a promising technology to reduce transport costs and enhance flexibility in optical networks. This session presents a comprehensive overview of the design principles and best practices in building high performance coherent pluggables. The session will focus on the key building blocks such as the digital signal processor (DSP), transmit/receive optical sub-assemblies (TROSA), radio frequency application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and other opto-electronic components, and how to leverage vertical integration and monolithic indium phosphide photonic integrated circuits to maximize performance (low noise, high OSNR, high receive sensitivity), reduce power consumption and enhance reliability.
13:20 – 13:35 Network evolution and the end of ROADMs
Andrew Lord BTTraffic continues to grow exponentially, fuelled increasingly by AI payloads. Fibre networks are now exceeding the single fibre-pair limit, and in 10 years, multiple parallel fibres between major network nodes will be ubiquitous. At this traffic scale, the need for fine-grain optical switching and routing, as effected by traditional ROADMs, will cease to be efficient. This talk explores the logical conclusions for network architectures.
13:40 – 13:55 Fujitsu 1FINITY Ultra Optical System (UOS) Novelties for Deepest Network Insights Muhammad Sarwar  Distinguished Planner – Advanced Technology and Architecture ~
Fujitsu Network Communications
Talk will highlight benefits of some of novel techniques offered by Fujitsu Ultra Optical System for deepest network insights, with specific examples.   -Fault auto tracking – to improve reach by reducing OSNR design margin  -Real time fault localization – for faster recovery, and to characterize fault baseline profiles  -Telemetry of deep DSP data for AI/ML based use cases like predictive maintenance  -E2E reachability testing – to pretest link characteristics for optimal selection of transponder parameters, even before service is created  -Fiber type verification – to validate operator’s assessment of fiber type to ensure optimal optical performance.
14:00 – 14:15 The need for modular SDN controller architecture
Stefan Melin  Lead Optical Network Architect   Telia Company  Telia Company
The driver for operators to deploy SDN architectures is to improve management of their networks. It is about to enable faster deployment, faster trouble shooting and to know the networks better.  There are very interesting opportunities with intelligent functions which will develop a lot. An SDN architecture will be deployed over long time and must support a modular concept where functions can be deployed and replaced with a reasonable effort. The benefit of an SDN architecture must outweigh the effort for deploying it. Here we present our view on use cases and requirements for deployment of an optical SDN architecture.
14:20 – 14:35 5G convergence and Future Challenges for Optical Networks
Andrea Di Giglio Telecom Italia
5G enables innovative use cases in different fields: Industry 4.0, eHealth, Smart Energy, smart Cities, Media & Entertainment, Automotive. Each of this use cases generates traffic with different requirements in terms of e.g. throughput, latency, jitter, security, reliability. In 5G RAN and core slices are adopted to segregate traffic and to guarantee different requirements for different clients. Transport network in general and Optical Networks should accomplish heterogeneous and challenging traffic requirements. An innovative optical network including new architecture, new component and novel control and secuirity systems should be thought, designed and realized.  The talk describe where we are and where we are going to.
14:40 – 14:55 Evolution of Fronthaul Optical Interfaces to 50Gbit/s and Beyond
Junjie Li, President of IPEC & the chief expert of optical transport networks at China Telecom
To support the development of Beyond 5G and 6G, the optical interface of mobile fronthaul continues to evolve towards higher speeds. 50Gbit/s interface based on PAM4 will become commercial reality soon, and 100G+ is already on the road. Stronger signal processing capabilities built in DSP or CDR are needed to accommodate the significantly reduced link budget relative to 25Gbit/s NRZ interface. To fully share the underlying technologies of optical industry, IPEC has launched the MFH50 standard project to discuss the technical roadmap for the evolution of fronthaul optical interfaces to 50Gbit/s, as well as the evolution towards 100G+.
15:00 – 15:15 PON evolution for the next decade
Ron Heron  Lead Technology Strategist, Nokia
Every successive generation of PON technology needs to deliver on two fronts: seamlessly integrate with today’s networks to meet immediate use cases and revenue opportunities; ensure that fiber infrastructure remains future proof and sustainable for decades to come. 25G PON is already delivering while 50G PON is on its way. But then what? Options currently being considered are based on coherent detection and direct detection techniques. This presentation will explore the technical challenges and opportunities for the mid-term and long-term based on finding the sweet spot between market demand (use cases), technology costs, and complexity.
15:20 – 15:35 Transitioning PON to Coherent Technology for 100G and beyond
Mark Laubach, Systems Design Architecture Engineer Ciena
The market growth of PON and speeds to date suggest 100Gbps as the next step for PON speeds.  In the point-to-point market coherent technology for data center and extended campus applications are enjoying increasing volumes and an established ecosystem. These conditions enable the cost-effective reuse into next generation PON applications.  Various standards activities are looking at the future requirements for beyond 50Gbps PON systems.   A 100Gbps coherent solution is presented as the first prudent suggestion for PON evolving from traditional IM DD.  Coherent PON deployment can coexist on existing ODNs while maintaining coexistence with legacy PON deployments.
15:40 – 16:30 Panel 2: Connectivity for 5G and Beyond
Moderator:Vlad Kozlov LightCounting
Speakers:
Philippe Chanclou Orange Labs
Junjie Li China Telecom
Antonio Tartaglia Ericsson
Feng Jia Huawei
Jim Theodoras HG Genuine

Wednesday 4th October – Morning

Topic: New and emerging technologies

10:00 – 10:15 3-D Structured Light and sensing
Gregory Pandraud Ommatidia LiDAR
Accurate three-dimensional (3D) imaging is essential for machines and vehicles to map and interact with the physical world. Although numerous 3D imaging technologies exist, each addressing niche applications with varying degrees of success, none has achieved the breadth of applicability and impact that digital image sensors have in the two-dimensional imaging world.
FMCW based LiDAR sensors allow to go beyond the limitations of actual LiDAR systems such as limited depth accuracy and immunity to interference from sunlight, as well as limited ability to measure the velocity of moving objects directly. Ommatidia’s LiDAR FMCW based solution offers a unique product that finds applications in a number of fields ranging from vibrometry to industrial metrology. Beyond being scalable the solution offers the possibility to match the pricing request (while keeping the performance) of such markets.
10:20 – 10:35 Automotive and Air Taxi Optical Networking
Ken Applebaum  CEO  COTSWORKS  Charter Member, SOSA Technical Advisory committee  Chairperson, SAE AS3 Fiber Optics subcommittee Cosworks
This abstract will present passive and active optical technology solutions and network architectures automotive, trucking, air taxis, and autonomous vehicles. Presentation of existing and new advancements lasers, receivers, muxes, splitters, termini, and connectors and their applications will be shown in a variety of implementations from a global supply chain and userbase. Applications such as LIDAR, 3D sensing, high resolution imaging, and Telematics require highspeed multiple lane optical networks that have ring, star, shared, and point to point deployments. This presentation will provide a possible roadmap to mass deployment of optics.
10:40 – 10:55 High-speed, low power microLEDs for optical communications
Alasdair Fikouras Avicena
Avicena is pioneering a revolution in data transmission with high-density, ultra-low power, short-reach optical interconnects. Unleashing the untapped potential of Gallium Nitride microLEDs, Avicena’s LightBundle™ provides a solution far superior to traditional, energy-intensive SerDes technology. Combining the microLEDs with silicon photodetectors and cost-efficient fibre bundles, Avicena overcomes the inherent limitations of interconnect density, offering unparalleled energy efficiency (<1pJ/bit), high-temperature operation (>150oC), and exceptional bandwidth density (>1Tbps/mm).     By integrating existing IC and display manufacturing ecosystems, Avicena has the capability for a swift volume ramp-up, with affordable production, transforming the landscape of optical communications with a brighter future of faster, energy-efficient computing.
11:00 – 11:15 The State of Quantum Cryptography Market: A Closer Look at CV-QKD Technology
Sergi Vizcaíno Fuentes, Strategy & Outreach Manager, LuxQuanta
Quantum Cryptography provides superior protection against quantum computer-based attacks, so it’s crucial to understand, evaluate, and implement these technologies promptly. As leading European Quantum Cryptography experts, we recognize the growing hype and the overwhelming confusion surrounding Quantum Technologies.     This talk aims to provide an in-depth, accurate assessment of the Quantum Cryptography market, equipping the audience with a comprehensive understanding of it. We will also offer a preview of our Continuous Variable Quantum Key Distribution (CV-QKD) system, NOVA LQ™. This system generates unhackable keys and seamlessly integrates into existing optical networks, coexisting with data transmission over the same fiber    The development of commercially available CV-QKD systems, such as NOVA LQ™, represents a significant milestone in safeguarding our current communications from the quantum computing threat. This will ease the mass deployment of quantum cryptography worldwide and lead to the development of more cost-effective solutions.
11:20 – 11:35 Practical Considerations for Achieving Quantum-Secure Optical Networks Robert Keys, Sr. Director, Optical Transmission R&D Ciena
There is increasing concern around development of quantum computers and their potential to render public key encryption vulnerable. The proposed mitigation of the quantum threat is, not surprisingly, based on quantum optical technologies, that is quantum key distribution. But will the mitigation be ready and deployed before the threat emerges? We will discuss the steps that are necessary to deploy quantum secure optical networks by looking through the lens of the telecom equipment provider. A roadmap from quantum security to quantum communications on telecom networks is discussed.
11:40 – 11:55 From Science Fiction to Forklifts: Challenges and Advantages of PIC sensing for mobility applications
Peter Stern Voyant2020 was almost the peak of LiDAR hype, but none of the large-scale commercial approaches  at the time mentioned a  Silicon Photonic approach.  Photonic Integrated Circuits for LiDAR was considered science fiction.  Only three years later the reverse is true, with many leading teams in automotive acknowledging Photonic Integrated Circuits offer the only practical approach to implement LiDAR in ADAS systems in cars, and needed to make LiDAR a cost effective imaging modality for other industries.  There are multiple claims for automotive certified products in cars by 2028. What changed over the last three years?  Why have non-photonic approaches seemingly failed and what advantages do SiPH PIC solutions really offer?  
12:00 – 12:15 Photonic integrated circuits for solid-state LiDAR
Yi Xie, Business Development Manager IMEC
Research and development in LiDAR technology has significantly grown over the last years, with a strong demand from the automotive industry. Size, weight and cost are some of the major driving forces when exploring new LiDAR architectures. Emerging systems try to break away from mechanical scanning devices by using optical phased arrays or focal plane arrays. Furthermore, photonic integrated circuits (PICs) open the possibility of densely packing most of the required photonic building blocks on a single Si/SiN chip using CMOS-compatible foundry processes. In this talk, we summarize our recent work in PIC-based components for developing solid-state LiDAR systems.
12:20 – 12:35

Efficient high-power O-band uncooled lasers for high-capacity photonic IO

Milind Gokhale, CTO, Casela Technologies

We describe recent advances in the performance of high-power, high-efficiency (D)WDM laser sources in the O-band for high-speed and high-density photonic IO. New laser designs using standard InGaAsP technology, and the advent of external pluggable light sources offer unprecedented improvements in efficiency, scale, and flexibility for both traditional silicon photonics transceivers and AI clusters with co-packaged optics.

Wednesday Afternoon

Topic: Networking/systems/Service provider

13:00 – 13:15 Will you need CPO in 5 years?
Rajiv Pancholy, Director Hyperscale Strategy & Products Broadcom Inc.
The exponential growth in AI/ML data intensive, high-performance computing workloads will require more efficient interconnect solutions.  Today, innovations in optical interconnects for cloud networking are focused on delivering both cost and power benefits.  Co-Packaged Optics provides the lowest cost and power advantages, and additionally delivers on latency, bandwidth density, scalability, and next generation architecture requirements needed for AI/ML interconnect.  Unfortunately, the industry remains afraid of CPO, even after capability demonstrations and public announcements from Broadcom, NVIDIA, and CISCO.  The presentation will address why we believe CPO is ready for network deployments and compute workloads.
13:20 – 13:35 The 6th Generation of Fiber Optic Communications: Carrier and Spatial Division Multiplexing (CSDM)
Brian Smith, CTO Office  Lumentum
Fiber communications systems have evolved through five distinct technology generations since the 1980s. The current coherent transmission generation has seen successive improvement in performance and capacity, but faces impending limitations in baud rate and the Shannon limit, driving yet another technology shift. A new generation, Carrier and Spatial Division Multiplexing (CSDM) is needed. CSDM combines closely spaced coherently modulated optical carriers (Carrier Division Multiplexing) with expanded spectrum through multiple fiber cores or propagation modes (Space Division Multiplexing). This Market Focus presentation introduces the requirements for CSDM and its impact on ROADM networks and coherent transmission.
13:40 – 13:55 ROADM/OXC evolution for backbone, metro and DC/HPC applications
Ning DENG, Technology Expert Huawei
This talk addresses the recent and potential future evolution of ROADM/OXC. For backbone, 32-degree C+L ROADM/OXC is becoming available on market. For metro, wavelength switching and “one-hop connection” is extended to metro edge. Moreover, the rapidly increasing HPC/DC applications foster the evolution of ROADM/OXC capability.
14:00 – 14:15 Network Disaggregation: Optical Line Systems and Pluggable Optics
Dr. Sanjai Parthasarathi, Chief Marketing Officer Coherent Corp.
Optical networking architectures continue to evolve driven by needs from both traditional carriers and Internet content providers. Disaggregated networks are one such evolution. Disaggregation brings the benefits of agility, significant cost savings, flexibility, and user-defined features for the networks, plus the simplicity of operations. The traditional approach for edge and access networks is also changing by leveraging disaggregated optical terminals, white boxes, and compact modulars. The pluggable coherent transceivers that enable IP over DWDM applications further accelerate the adoption of disaggregation and open line systems. Detailed market trends and market size will be discussed along with a review of the state of the art in component technologies that enable optical line systems and pluggables.
14:20 – 14:35 Advanced Optoelectronics Evolution Framework Upgrades Data Centers Towards 100T+
Wenyu Zhao, Vice President, IPEC & Deputy Director, Research Institute of Technology and Standard of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).
The industry is focusing on the optoelectronic technologies that can cope with the increasing traffic between switching devices in data centers. Such optoelectronic technologies have also become a hot topic in standards research. Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) and Linear Pluggable Optics (LPO) are potential technologies to satisfy low power consumption and high bandwidth of data center networks.  IPEC is an open international standards organization that focuses on the research and standardization of cutting-edge optoelectronic technologies. In this report, IPEC will introduce the values and challenges of CPOs and LPO, as well as the standardization progress.
14:40 – 14:55 The move to coherent inside the datacenter
Scott Wilkinson  Lead Analyst, Optical Components Cignal AI
Building on the phenomenal success of 400G pluggable optics, vendors and operators are expanding into other areas with both higher speed (800G+) and lower cost (400G-) options in development. Projects like the 800LR work by the OIF are targeting inside the datacenter pluggable coherent optics in the near future. In this talk, the speaker will examine current inside datacenter optics, the current and expected performance of IM-DD optics at 100G and 200G PAM4, and draw conclusions as to when and at what speeds coherent optics will start to make economic and technical sense inside the datacenter.
15:00 – 15:15 Evolving Networks to 1.6 Tb/s Transmission and Ubiquitous 800G Networking
Will Leckie, Senior Manager, Optical Engineering, R&D, Ciena
800Gb/s coherent technology. To achieve the next step level improvement in network scale, economics, and power consumption, 1.6Tb/s single carrier transmission, supporting “800G everywhere” is required. This session describes the enabling underlying technology that will power the first 1.6Tb/s coherent modules in the industry, deliver 50% reduction in space and power per bit, and 15% improvement in spectral efficiency over leading solutions today: ultra-high bandwidth 100GHz electro-optics and 200GBaud DSP based on 3nm CMOS. First 3nm DSP chip measurements will be showcased which speak to the maturity of the 3nm CMOS process.
15:20 – 15:35 The CW-WDM MSA:  Defining laser standards for AI, HPC and high-density optics
Matt Sysak, Editor of the MSACW-WDM MSA
The growth in artificial Intelligence and high performance computing is driving the demand for high-density optics to enable a leap in performance, efficiency, cost, and bandwidth scaling compared with traditional technologies.  This will require a shift to 8, 16, and 32 wavelength optical sources. The CW-WDM MSA, formed in 2020 and now with over 50 members, released the industry’ first specification for multi-wavelength advanced integrated optics in 2021, creating opportunities for transceiver and laser suppliers to develop innovative products.   In his talk, Matt Sysak, Chief Editor of the MSA, will provide the ECOC audience with the latest MSA updates, including progress on product development by its members.
15:40- 15:55 Operating Beyond the C-Band: Increasing capacity using additional bands
Francois Moore  Optical Architect & AdvisorFujitsu Network Communications
C-Band Capacity is reaching a plateau: Baud Rate improvements no longer yield additional capacity due to the channel count reduction. The industry is expanding to the L-Band, starting with Long-Haul.  This presentation describes two major improvements easing transition to C+L: Continuous C+L WSS technology and C+L capable Multi-Cast switches for CDC Drop technology. These elements allow deployment of a single node C+L network providing major operational and sustainability advantages.  It concludes outlining the challenges and opportunities in extending beyond these bands. Extending beyond these bands into the U and S Bands faces major challenges but solutions are emerging.