As we get ready to attend the Optical Fiber Communication (OFC) Conference and Exhibition, optical communication’s largest event of the year, the Acacia team is preparing to discuss the trends and technologies shaping the industry today. Since last year’s conference, we have continued to see the aggressive ramp of 400G pluggables as they’ve migrated their way into new markets and applications.

Welcome to the Terabit Era!
Customer interest has been strong for high-performance multi-haul modules, such as Acacia’s single optical carrier 1.2T Coherent Interconnect Module 8 that is now shipping and currently in Tier 1 carrier network field trials. We expect 120+ Gbaud coherent technology to be a hot topic at the show. Get up to speed on this new technology’s cost and performance benefits beforehand by attending this Webinar on Thursday, February 23 titled, Terabit Coherent Optics – Maximizing Network Performance with 1.2 Terabit Coherent Optics.

Coherent Interoperability Participation
Continuing its commitment to building an industry-wide ecosystem, Acacia will be participating in the following interoperability events at OFC.

  • OIF Interoperability Demo, Booth #5101 – This is OIF’s largest-ever multi-vendor interoperability demonstration of the critical solutions accelerating implementation of next-generation capabilities. It will feature four fundamental technology areas – 400ZR optics; co-packaging architectures; common electronical I/O (CEI) channels; and common management interface specification (CMIS) implementations. Acacia will participate in the 400ZR optics demonstration.
  • OFCnet, Booth #5917 – OFC’s high-speed optical network, OFCnet, will enable select demonstrations of networking products, solutions and architectures. This live network will showcase emerging technologies including quantum networking, network element interoperability, SDN and programmability, and networking for big data/big science applications. Acacia will demonstrate OpenZR+ interoperability via a link from the Coherent QSFP-DD module to Acacia’s Bright 400G ZR+ module over an ADVA open line system.

Speaking Sessions
Below is a summary of the sessions that Acacia experts will be participating in during OFC.

Sunday, March 5th

  • Workshop: Smart Pluggable Coherent Optics: Is it the end of Layered IP over DWDM?
    Panelist: Fenghai Liu, Sr. Director, Product Management
    Date/Time: March 5, 1:00 – 3:30 am
    Where: Room 6C
  • Workshop: Where are the Boundaries Between IM-DD and Coherent?
    Panelist: Hongbin Zhang, Principal Engineer
    Date/Time: March 5, 1:00 – 3:30 am
    Where: Room 8

Monday, March 6th

  • Track S1: Datacom Subsystems and Systems
    Presentation: Power Efficient Coherent Detection for Short-Reach
    Invited Speaker: Hongbin Zhang, Principal Engineer
    Date/Time:   March 6, 8:00 am
  • Optica Executive Forum: Panel 1: Where and What is the Coherent Edge?
    Panelist: Tom Williams, Sr. Director, Technical Marketing
    Date/Time: March 6, 9:00 – 10:15 am
    Where: Hilton
  • M3I: Monolithic or 3D Electro-Optical Integration
    Presider: Long Chen, Distinguished Engineer
    Date/Time:  March 6, 2:00 – 4:00 pm
    Where: Room 8
  • Technical Conference/Panel: 6Tb/s+ Intra-DC Network
    Panelist: Mark Heimbuch, Principal Engineer
    Date/Time: March 6, 4:30 – 6:30 pm
    Where: Room 6C

Tuesday, March 7th

  • Market Watch Panel I: State of the Industry
    Organizer: Tom Williams, Sr. Director, Technical Marketing
    Date/Time: March 7, 10:30 – 12:00 pm
    Where: Theater 1
  • Market Watch Panel III: 800G / 128GBaud Pluggable Coherent – Key Technologies and Applications
    Speaker: Torben Nielsen, Sr. Director, Product Management
    Date/Time:  March 7, 2:00 – 3:30 pm
    Where: Theater 1
  • Panel: LiDAR Systems and Technologies with Integrated Photonics
    Speaker: Long Chen, Distinguished Engineer
    Date/Time:  March 7, 2:00 – 4:00 pm
    Where:  Room 7AB

Wednesday, March 8th

  • Exhibit Hall/Panel: OpenZR+ MSA – New Developments and Next Steps
    Moderator: Tom Williams, Sr. Director, Technical Marketing
    Date/Time: March 8, 11:45 – 12:45 pm
    Where: Theater 2
  • Panel: Defining 800ZR and 800LR; An OIF Update
    Panelist: Tom Williams, Sr. Director, Technical Marketing
    Date/Time: March 8, 1:00 – 2:00 pm
    Where: Theater 2
  • Market Watch Panel IV: Performance-Centric Long Haul
    Speaker: Anuj Malik, Director, Product Management & Strategy
    Date/Time: March 8, 2:45 – 4:15 pm
    Where: Theater 1
  • Poster Session: 32-λ×400 Gb/s Single-Carrier 120-GBaud QPSK Coherent Transmission Over 3075-km G.652.D Fiber Link Using OE-MCM Prototype Under Field-Deployed Configuration (W2B.16)
    Acacia authors: Philippe Jennevé, Shaoliang Zhang, Miquel A. Mestre, Dayou Qian
    Date/Time:  March 8 & March 9, 10:30 – 12:30 pm

Meet with Acacia at OFC
If you are attending the show, we would welcome the opportunity to meet with you. Click here to set up a meeting.  We hope to see you in San Diego!