I experienced the difference from the Japanese market and touched on the latest trends in the world in optical communication and networking.

The OFC​ ​(The Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition) 2023 was held from March​ ​7​ ​to 9,​ ​2023 at the San Diego Convention Center in the United States. It is the world's largest exhibition of optical communication and networking, showing everything from technical content to the latest market trends.This time, there were 515 exhibitors and more than 11,500 visitors.

Overwhelmed by the difference in scale!

The venue was completely back to the same atmosphere as before Corona, and almost no one was wearing a mask. The scale of the booth was so large that I felt that it was the size of America. The event lasted for three days, but on the final day, the cleanup started around 14:00, so I felt that I didn't have enough time to visit all the booths.

Visitor characteristics

​The latest products and services from a wide range of fields related to optical communication, such as parts manufacturers, system vendors, fiber cable manufacturers, software developers, and measuring equipment manufacturers, will be exhibited. was participating.

Experiencing local trends and notable trends in optical communication

I felt that the 2023 OFC had three major themes. I would like to touch on trends while reviewing the contents of the exhibits of the two companies (Coherent and MultiLane).

1: 400G is commonplace, 800G/1.6T is the age

2: Flow of openness and multivendorization​

　３：CO-Packaged Optics

800G is the main! Exhibition of MultiLane

​MultiLane is an up-and-coming manufacturer with fast-growing sales, with a line of essential cutting-edge products in the networking space. Solutions for 800G and the latest products were on display at this exhibition.

800G for OSFP-XD of MCB (Module Compliance Board) or HCB (Host Compliance Board) was on display. OSFP-XD Form Factor As a corresponding World's first solution and, OSFP (8 lanes) of 16lane with the standard extended to 1.6Tbps can support up to is what they said.

The 800G demonstration exhibition was also a big highlight, and there were two demonstrations combining MultiLane's product (ML4079EN) and DELTA's switch.

① Loop back the transmission waveform from ML4079EN with the module inserted in the DELTA switch and measure the reception waveform.

② Add noise to the transmission waveform from XENA 's traffic generator, and display the waveform received by ML4081 on the GUI.

BERT products targeting the automotive market were also introduced. As it is still in the R&D phase, no further details have been released.

A bi-directional waveform measurement demo using the ML4035 DSO was also on display.

A wave of openness! Exhibit at Coherent

​Coherent, which develops and manufactures products for various applications such as industrial, optical communication, life science, semiconductor equipment, and consumer markets, exhibited innovative demonstrations at this year's booth. It attracted a lot of interest, with people waiting in line to view the demo.

Below is an IPoDWDM interoperability demo. I actually connected Adtran and ACACIA products in the venue and saw that they were able to communicate without errors.

Also, the big highlight was Publishing the latest products was. this time Coherent company has its own DSPs The latest using 100G DCOs optical transceiver module was published. without amplifier 80km transmittable and 5 W. A product that achieves the following low power consumption, 2023 Mass production is scheduled to start at the end of the year. this visited the booth attracted the attention of many.

A moving 800G optical transceiver module was also on display. When I asked the explanation staff, I was very interested in this OFC because it was the first time to show it.

There was an exhibition of "CO-Package Optics", which was a big keyword throughout the event. This was an exhibition of 16x50Gbaud CO-Packaged Optics.

A QSFP module product with a built-in amplifier was also exhibited. (POLS EDFA IN A QSFP FORM FACTOR)

Seminars attended

Many seminars are held at OFC where you can touch on the latest technology and trends. While visiting exhibitions, I also participated in these seminars as much as possible to get in touch with the latest information. Some of the popular seminars were already full, even though we were recruiting 100 people. Here are some of the seminars I attended.

Three days to experience the dynamism of the optical communication industry

We have delivered the participation report of OFC2023. I saw many business travelers from Japan, and felt that it was an opportunity to deepen direct relationships with people from all over the world. It was a big venue, and it was hard to move between the booth and the seminar, but it was a meaningful event that I could check the latest technologies and products gathered from all over the world at once and feel a lot of trends. The next meeting will be held March​ ​24-28​,​ ​2024 at the same venue in San Diego. Why don't you visit it?

Macnica handles the world's most cutting-edge products in the communications industry, such as Coherent, MultiLane, and Marvell, which were introduced in this report. If you have any questions about products or technology trends, please feel free to contact us.