PRESS RELEASE

21 December 2018

Contact:
Leah Wilkinson Wilkinson + Associates for OFC 703-907-0010 leah@wilkinson.associates

OFC Announces Conference Plenary Speakers

Global Innovators in Coherent Optical Interconnects, Open Networking and Self-driving Cars to Deliver OFC 2019 Plenary Presentations

Speakers from Acacia Communications, Deutsche Telekom and Waymo will discuss electro-photonic integration, 5G network advancements, and autonomous vehicles

SAN DIEGO — The Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC), the world’s leading conference and exhibition for optical communications and networking professionals, will feature an incomparable lineup of plenary speakers for OFC 2019. Alex Jinsung Choi, Deutsche Telekom AG, Germany, Dmitri Dolgov, Waymo LLC, USA and Benny Mikkelsen, Acacia Communications, Inc., USA will take the stage 5 March 2019 to share their visions on open network innovation, the future of vehicular mobility, and optical integration as catalyst for higher data rates.

OFC 2019 is being held 3-7 March (exhibits 5–7 March) at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. OFC is the industry’s stage where global leaders, academia and innovators present, debate, launch and demonstrate the innovations driving applications that are on the cusp of changing the world in which we live. This year’s event is expected to draw more than 15,500 attendees and 700+ exhibitors from 65 countries.

“OFC 2019 is the place to be if you want to know about the latest advancements in optical communications. Our plenary speakers will cover exciting topics: Self-driving vehicles are pioneering optical sensing and machine-learning, they create demand for future communications. Openness has become a new imperative in 5G and will change the way networks will be built. And finally, electro-photonic integration appears to be the only path to increase data rates while lowering size and power,” explained Jörg-Peter Elbers, SVP of advanced technology, standards & IPR, ADVA Optical Networking and OFC General Co-Chair. “We are thrilled to hear about these topics from three industry luminaries.”

 Alex Jinsung Choi, SVP Strategy & Technology Innovation, T-Laboratories Innovation, Deutsche Telekom, Germany

Alex Jinsung Choi is SVP of Strategy & Technology Innovation, Head of T-Laboratories Innovation at Deutsche Telekom AG. Alex has more than 20 years of experience in the mobile telecommunication industry. Prior to joining Deutsche Telekom, he served from 2012 as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Head of the Corporate R&D Division and the Technology Strategy Office for SK Telekom in South Korea where he drove forward key strategic and research topics.

Talk: Towards Open Innovation in 5G

While it remains difficult to make predictions, especially about the future, one bet seems safe: the exponential Internet traffic growth will continue for the foreseeable future. With 5G, we will see requirements for 100 Gb/s connectivity to base stations. More radical approaches are required by operators to keep network rollout costs under control. This includes the move away from a classical black box approach to disaggregation, to Open Source Software and Open Hardware, and also opening up the closed optical ecosystem. Organizations like TIP, OCP, the Linux Foundation and O-RAN play a critical role in this new ecosystem.

Dmitri Dolgov, CTO & VP Engineering, Waymo, USA

Dmitri Dolgov is CTO and Vice President of Engineering for Waymo, a self-driving technology company with a mission to make it safe and easy to move people and things around. Dmitri was one of the original members of the Google self-driving car project, which became Waymo in 2016. In his role at Waymo, Dmitri leads the development of all self-driving hardware and software.

Talk: From Self-driving Cars to a Vision for Future Mobility
Waymo, formerly the Google self-driving car project, is currently the only company with a fleet of fully self-driving cars on public roads. A suite of sensors, including LiDAR, radar, and cameras, gives Waymo’s vehicles a 360 degree view and a detailed 3D picture of the world, and Waymo’s self-driving software is tested through billions of miles driven in simulation and over 10 million miles of real-world driving experience. This presentation will share how Waymo’s vehicles use their powerful combination of custom-built sensors and software to safely navigate the roads, how they communicate, and how machine learning and artificial intelligence touch every part of Waymo’s self-driving system.

Benny Mikkelsen, Founder & CTO, Acacia Communications, USA

Benny Mikkelsen is one of the founders of Acacia Communications and also serves as its Chief Technology Officer. Benny brings to Acacia extensive expertise and experience in optical transmission and technologies. Prior to joining Acacia, Benny co-founded and served as the vice president of technology of Mintera. Benny has published more than 200 papers and conference contributions in letters, journals and conferences.

Talk: Tackling Capacity & Density Challenges by Electro-Photonic Integration

Photonic integration and digital signal processing (DSP) are critical technologies to support the ever-increasing need for higher data rates and smaller, cost effective optical interfaces for cloud, access and transport applications. As we move to higher data rates, co-packaging of photonics and electronics - beginning with analog ASICs, then DSP ASICs, and ultimately switch ASICs - could offer additional improvements in power, density and performance. This presentation will provide an update and outlook of the challenges and opportunities the industry is facing as we scale to higher data rates and smaller form factor optical interfaces.

Registration Information
Conference registration is open! Register before 4 February 2019 and save on a full technical conference pass.

Credentialed media and analysts who wish to cover OFC 2019 can submit a form to register for a full-access conference media badge. Registration, travel information and exhibitor news can be found in the OFC media room.

Postdeadline Papers
Postdeadline papers are now being accepted. The submission deadline is 18 February 2019 12:00 EST (17:00 GMT) and details are available on the OFC Conference website: Paper submission.

About OFC
The Optical Fiber Conference and Exhibition (OFC) is the largest global conference and exhibition for optical communications and networking professionals. For more than 40 years, OFC has drawn attendees from all corners of the globe to meet and greet, teach and learn, make connections and move business forward.
 
OFC includes dynamic business programming, an exhibition of more than 700 companies, and high impact 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 2019 will be held from 3-7 March 2019 at the San Diego Convention Center, California, USA. Follow @OFCConference, learn more OFC Community LinkedIn, and watch highlights OFC YouTube.