• A Hybrid Conference – In-Person and Virtual Presentations
  • Technical Conference:  24 – 28 March 2024
  • Exhibition: 26 – 28 March 2024
  • San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, California, USA

OFC Presents Data Center Summit: Optics Inside the Data Center

By Lisa Huff, Discerning Analytics


To many in the optical networking industry, data center means these massive buildings with servers, storage and switching that run cloud infrastructures for the likes of Facebook, Google, Microsoft and others. However, what it really means is any compute infrastructure that supports a business – no matter how large or small. As you can imagine, these data centers look vastly different depending on the specific business that is being supported. Out of necessity, cloud infrastructures have long been the leaders in data center network development, but that should not exclude the importance of the small, medium or large enterprise versions of the data center.
 
As the paradigm of networking connectivity shifts from smaller to larger data centers, so does the technology. No longer will we see enormous bundles of copper Category cabling running through these data centers. This has shifted to optical fiber.
 
The show floor session of the Data Center Summit at OFC 2017 will contain several presentations from industry experts that will discuss the current and next generation of optical technologies that are being developed for connectivity inside the data center. Evolving requirements of both cloud and enterprise data centers will be debated along with the entire optical networking value chain – including data center end user, equipment manufacturer and components suppliers.
 
Synopses of the five presentations are detailed below:
 
The Data Center Optics Market:  Presented by Discerning Analytics, a data center industry analyst firm, this presentation will discuss overall forecasts for optical fiber and transceivers along with what revenue percentage is being sold into Mega, Massive, Large/Medium/Small/Mini.
 
Data Center Requirements on Next Generation Optical Interconnect Technologies:  Alibaba has one of the largest on-line retail sites as well as cloud services and runs Mega data centers to support these services. Its network architecture is changing in order to keep up with burgeoning needs. This presentation will discuss the optical connectivity technologies for the coming years.
 
Optical Form Factor for Next Generation 400G Switching:  In a short period of time, Arista has become one of the leaders in data center networking. Its switching products are used in every type of data center. The next data rate being developed for data center switching is 400G. Arista will talk about the optical transceivers for 400G switching.
 
Defining the Link:  Because data centers can be so vastly different from one another, it is extremely important that each and every one of them understand their networking needs and how the architecture should support their overall businesses. Nexans provides both copper and fiber-optic cabling and transceivers to the data center market. Its presentation will focus on defining the interconnect link at each point in the enterprise data center network and how each link might be different.
 
Silicon Photonics and the Future of Optical Connectivity in the Data Center:  Intel has been working on Silicon Photonics for more than 10 years now, but never before has it been so close to commercial deployment. This presentation will discuss the current state of Silicon Photonics and how it will be implemented to solve the needs of data center networks.

The Data Center Summit will be held on 21 March from 12:15 to 13:45 in Theater II in the Exhibit Hall.  Admission is free with Exhibits Pass Plus registration.
 

Posted: 3 March 2017 by Lisa Huff, Discerning Analytics | with 0 comments

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The views expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of The Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC)  or its sponsors.