Look Back, Look Forward ECOC: A Chat with Acacia’s Tom Williams
By Lisa Crewe | Posted on September 8, 2017
Each year, the world’s biggest leaders in optical networking take the stage at European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC), the largest conference on optical communication in Europe. In anticipation of this year’s event, which takes place September 17 – 21 in Gothenburg, Sweden, we wanted to take a look back at last year’s event where our senior director Tom Williams spoke with ECOC to discuss the state of the industry and the growth of silicon photonics. How much do you think has changed in a year?
Brian Dolby (BD): I’m here at the Market Focus. I’m joined by Tom Williams of Acacia Communications. Tom has just given a presentation this afternoon and let’s start by asking you in your view — what’s the state at the market with silicon photonics?
Tom Williams (TW): We think silicon photonics is moving beyond the stage of whether it’s hype or whether it’s going to take over the world into more of a phase where it’s one of multiple solutions. We can really start to understand the features that make a particular application good for silicon photonics or not the right application for silicon photonics. So I think it’s more of a state of maturity.
BD: Why is coherent such an ideal one for silicon photonics?
TW: Coherent is great for silicon photonics because every coherent carrier, every wavelength, includes many optical functions. In our silicon photonics PIC we integrate more than 50 optical functions that includes both the transmit and receive optics. Really everything except the laser gets integrated into the silicon photonics. So it’s those applications where there are many optical functions that are ideal for silicon photonics and coherent fits right into that.
BD: Tom, for you, what are the next steps in the development and adoption of silicon photonics?
TW: We think the next steps, now that silicon photonics has been demonstrated for coherent and it’s being used in other applications, but has really been successful in coherent, we need to figure out how to then architect systems and make solutions that are a better fit for silicon photonics; and are really optimized for the benefits of silicon photonics, so that we have the most efficient solutions possible for the market.
BD: Because we really need this with this continual growth in bandwidth demand. You know we’ve got to keep on developing new solutions, haven’t we?
TW: Absolutely. There’s tremendous demand and growth and you know we think that coherent can be a big part of the solution for some of those applications.
BD: Fantastic thanks for talking to us.
TW: Great, thank you very much.
Tom will be again be speaking at the Market Focus at ECOC 2017, now in its 11th year. It takes place on Monday, September 18 through Wednesday September 20 on the exhibition floor, amidst over 300 exhibitors from across the industry. His presentation will be Tuesday, September 19th from 2:20 – 2:50 PM titled, State of the Optical Transport Market. Please join us!
If you’d like to schedule a time to meet with Acacia at ECOC, please email marketing@acacia-inc.com.