Industry Challenges and Transformations:
The OFC Plenary Features the Evolution of Silicon Photonics, 5G Networking, the Cloud 3.0 and the Internet of Things
The OFC Plenary Session, held on Tuesday, 21 March, offered three presentations from industry leaders on optical innovations for next-generation 5G networks, Cloud 3.0, Internet of Things (IoT), Virtual Reality (VR) and much more.
A video recording of the session will be available from the OFC website soon.
Urs Hölzle
A Ubiquitous Cloud Requires a Transparent Network
As the Senior Vice President for Technical Infrastructure at Google, Urs Hölzle offered OFC plenary attendees a thoughtful overview of cloud 3.0 network. In his current work, Hölzle leads the design, installation and operation of servers, networks and datacenters that provide power to Google services. Hölzle, with the support of his team have reduced the energy consumed by Google datacenters to less than 50 percent, lower than the industry standard. Driving the need for disaggregation to the Google network, rapid innovation, transmission speed and overall network evolution, Hölzle explained Google’s goal of higher volumes and lower component cost per terabit.
Meint K. Smit
Photonic Integrated Circuits for All: How Foundries Are Transforming the Prototype of Exciting New Devices
Meint K. Smit, professor of electrical engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands, provided OFC attendees with an overview of the evolution of foundries for integrated photonics. In his plenary presentation, Smit detailed the strengths and weaknesses of integrated photonics and presented a roadmap to move the industry forward. This roadmap outlined how optical component suppliers have the opportunity to reduce prototyping costs, thus significantly impacting the time to market for photonic integrated circuits. As the founder of the JePPIX platform, the joint Europe Platform for Photonic Integration of Components and Circuits, Smit’s insights during Tuesday’s plenary presentation will work to continue development of the InP-based photonic foundry system in Europe.
Mischa Dohler
Internet of Skills — Where Communications, Robotics and AI Meet
What do Virtual Reality, Software Defined Networking and a new album have in common? Professor Mischa Dohler, chair professor of Wireless Communications at King’s College in London, England, enticed attendees to the OFC Plenary with the combination of today’s latest technology advancements in SDN, wireless technology, virtual reality and classical music on a piano. At King’s College, Dohler’s research interests range from 5G networks to the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities. His presentation at OFC challenged those in attendance to embrace science and art. Today’s networks allow us to transmit video and audio, but the transmission of touch and physical movement has been elusive due to very stringent technical requirements on latency, reliability and data rate. Latest disruptive developments, underpinned by 5G, indicate that an Internet of Skills are closer than ever.
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