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Trailblazers in Optical Networking Set to Deliver Keynote Talks at OFC 2014

PRESS RELEASE

02 October 2013

Contact:
Lyndsay Meyer OFC 2014 +1.202.416.1435 lmeyer@osa.org

Trailblazers in Optical Networking Set to Deliver Keynote Talks at OFC 2014

San Francisco conference to include leaders in research and business

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2013—OFC 2014, the world’s leading conference for optical communications and networking professionals, today announced its line-up of keynote speakers for the 2014 plenary session.  On Tuesday, March 11, Ciena’s Gary Smith, Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs’ Robert W. Tkach, and MIT’s David Clark are slated to discuss the latest developments in optical communications technology, industry trends, and predictions about the field’s future growth.  For the first time since 1998, OFC will take place near Silicon Valley in San Francisco at the Moscone Convention Center, March 9-13.
 
“OFC’s keynote speakers run the gamut of the optical networking field and will share perspectives from industry outlook and technological developments to what the future of optical communications holds,” said Vishnu Shukla, general chair of OFC. “We are honored to have these three distinguished speakers as part of the conference program and the plenary is certain to be a highlight of the conference.”
 
Gary Smith, President and CEO, Ciena
The New Virtualized Network: Converged, Programmable, Intelligent and Open
 
Smith has nearly three decades of experience in the telecommunications industry. A member of President Obama's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, Smith has served as CEO of Ciena since 2001. Smith also serves on the board of directors for Avaya Inc. and CommVault Systems, Inc.
 
Smith will offer insights on the changing industry landscape and the network ecosystem of the future. He will discuss how evolving end-user demands and behavior are driving new network architectures that deliver unprecedented levels of convergence and openness.
 
Robert W. Tkach, Director, Advanced Photonics Research, Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs
Optical Fiber Communications: The Next Generation
 
Tkach is currently the director of advanced photonics research at Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs where his research interests have included dispersion management, optical amplification, optical networking, and high-speed DWDM transmission systems. He has received the Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award from the R&D Council of New Jersey, the 2008 John Tyndall Award, the 2009 Marconi Prize and Fellowship, and the 2013 Alexander Graham Bell Medal.
 
A frequent OFC contributor, Tkach will discuss the capacity limits and the coming bandwidth exhaust in telecommunications networks, as well as how next generation solutions in optical communications can address this pressing issue. He will also cover current research trends that will lead to specific future technologies essential to enabling the capacity and speed demands of optical communications networks in the coming years.
 
David Clark, Co-director, MIT Communications Futures Program, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
 
The Future(s) of Fiber Deployment
 
David Clark is a Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He also serves as co-director of the MIT Communications Futures Program, a project for industry collaboration and coordination along the communications value chain. His research looks at redefinition of the architectural underpinnings of the Internet, and the relation of technology and architecture to economic, societal and policy considerations.
 
Clark’s talk will consider factors that will drive continued deployment of capacity, and contribute to the overall health of our telecommunications infrastructure. Clark asks if at some point humans will hit the limit on the ability to consume data, or perhaps computers will just talk to each other at ever-faster rates and leave humans on the sidelines.
 
About OFC
For more than 35 years, OFC has been the premier destination for converging breakthrough research and innovation in telecommunications, optical networking, fiber optics and, recently, datacom and computing. Consistently ranked in the top 200 tradeshows in the United States, and named one of the Fastest Growing Trade Shows in 2012 by TSNN, the conference unites service providers, systems companies, enterprise customers, IT businesses, and component manufacturers, with researchers, engineers, and development teams from around the world. OFC includes dynamic business programming, an exposition of more than 550 companies, and cutting-edge peer-reviewed research that, combined, showcase the trends and pulse of the entire optical networking and communications industry. OFC is managed by The Optical Society (OSA) and co-sponsored by OSA, the IEEE Communications Society (IEEE/ComSoc), and the IEEE Photonics Society.  OFC 2014 takes place March 9-13 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, Calif., USA.