PRESS RELEASE

28 February 2012

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

OFC/NFOEC 2012 to Feature Breakthrough Research, Industry-focused Programming at the World's Leadin

Hot topics covered to include datacom, green networks, wireline-wireless networking, beyond 100G, coherent, photonic integration, and more

WHAT: Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) 2012

WHEN/WHERE: March 4 - 8 (Exhibits open March 6-8) at the Los Angeles Convention Center 

DETAILS: As the largest and most comprehensive international event for both the science and business of optical communications, this year’s conference will host the entire scope of optical communications, providing technical programming, exhibits and other activities for all audiences from systems and components manufacturers to service providers, carriers and enterprise

With more than 11,000 attendees expected, along with 500 exhibiting companies (40 percent based outside the U.S.) and nearly 800 technical presentations, OFC/NFOEC 2012 is the premier conference for all those with an interest in telecommunications, optical networks, datacom and more.

Featuring:

• Comprehensive technical program, featuring both the OFC and NFOEC programs, which includes hundreds of sessions, workshops, tutorials, short courses and paper presentations on the latest optical communications research from more than a dozen topical areas.
• Leading companies in the Exhibit Hall—from network and test equipment vendors to sub-system and component manufacturers, plus software, fiber cable and specialty fiber manufacturers.

HIGHLIGHTS:  Technical and business programming highlights include:

• OFC/NFOEC Plenary and Awards Session - Tuesday, March 6, 8 a.m.
  Join these industry leaders for a unique perspective into today’s business realities:
  • Milo Medin, Vice President, Access Services, Google, USA
    Presentation: Bandwidth, Optics, and the Age of Abundance
  • Greg Papadopoulos, Ph.D., Venture Partner, New Enterprise Associates, USA
    Presentation: How to Design and Build Your Very Own Exascale Computer
  • Isao Sugino, Director of the Research and Development Office, Technology Policy Division, Global ICT Strategy Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan
    Presentation: Disaster Recovery and the R&D Policy in Japan's Telecommunication Networks
     
• Private Press Luncheon - FTTx Network Evolution: New Services, New Consumer Demands – Tuesday, March 6, 12 p.m.
  In an exclusive event only for attending press, leaders from Google, Verizon and NTT will discuss FTTX Network Evolution: New Services, New Consumer Demands. Broadband service providers have delivered unprecedented bandwidth to consumers on FTTx networks and have gained a foothold in the home with bundled services.  New services like the smart home and home security promise to grow ARPU and build 'sticky' customers.  But which services will the consumer take and how can the provider capitalize?  We'll explore the FTTX network evolution: challenges encountered, services offered, and consumer reaction.  Panelists:
  • Milo Medin, Vice President, Access Services, Google
  • Vincent O'Byrne, Director of Technology, Verizon
  • Naoto Yoshimoto, Senior R&D Manager, Access Network Service Systems Laboratories, NTT
     
• Technical Presentations – Sunday, March 4 – Thursday, March 8
  Hundreds of educational workshops, short courses, tutorial sessions and invited talks covering hot topics such as datacom, green networks, spatial multiplexing, wireline-wireless networking, beyond 100G, coherent, and photonic integration.
   
• Post-Deadline Paper Presentations – Thursday, March 8, 6 p.m.
  Post-deadline papers give conference attendees the opportunity to hear new and significant research in rapidly advancing areas at the earliest possible opportunity. The post-deadline session, which saw a more than 25 percent increase in the number of submissions this  year, highlights only those papers judged to be truly excellent and compelling in their timeliness.
   
• Special Symposium - Enabling Technologies for Fiber Capacities Beyond 100 Terabits/second -   Tuesday, March 6 and Wednesday, March 7
  Just recently, fiber capacity demonstrations have reached the milestone of 100 Tb/s over a single mode fiber. This symposium will consider technologies and techniques that may allow fiber capacity to reach the factor of 10 increase that will be needed within the next 5-10 years based on traffic growth trends. The topics to be addressed include: multimode/multicore fibers for spatial multiplexing, integrated photonics for spatial multiplexing and high-capacity systems, techniques for achieving high spectral efficiency, and others.
   
• Rump Session: Is Space Division Multiplexing an Industry-Transforming Technology or a Research Curiosity?– Tuesday, March 6, 7:30 p.m.
  Substantial research expenditures have already been committed to Space Division Multiplexing (SDM) as a means of breaking through the nonlinear Shannon limit, which sets a hard ceiling on the ultimate capacity achievable in single-mode fiber transmission systems. Many believe SDM will be essential if the industry is to continue the dramatic decades-long reductions in cost per bit of optical long-haul systems. Skeptics worry that the huge investment required to invent and commercialize critical cost-effective SDM-compatible network elements, such as optical amplifiers and ROADMs, will not be justified by a one-time increase in capacity. The rump session will be a spontaneous discussion addressing these questions among the audience members.
   
• Service Provider Summit - Wednesday, March 7, 8:30 a.m.
  This program features topics of interest to CTOs, network architects, network designers and technologists within the service provider and carrier sector. The program includes panel discussions, a keynote presentation, exhibit time and networking time. Stu Elby, vice president, of Network Architecture and Technology and chief technologist of Verizon Digital Media Services will deliver the keynote presentation, “Cloud Computing as a Service,”at 8:30 a.m. Panel topics include “Towards Layer 1-2-3-Convergence” and “Role of the Network in the Age of Social Media” and feature leaders from a global slate of service providers and end users, including BT, Comcast, Google, NTT, Microsoft, Telstra, Verizon and more.

• Market Watch - Tuesday, March 6 - Thursday, March 8
  This three-day series of panel sessions engages the applications and business communities in the field of optical communications. Presentations and panel discussions feature esteemed guest speakers from industry, research and the investment communities, including Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena, Morgan Keegan, NTT, Verizon and others. Topics covered this year include the state of the industry, passive optical networks, mobile broadband, advanced integrated photonics and 100G.

PRESS REGISTRATION: Media/analyst registration for OFC/NFOEC 2012 can be accessed online.

CONTACT: Please contact us or visit the event website at www.ofcnfoec.org for additional information, including travel arrangement details.

Keira Shein, 410.363.9494, keira@wilkinsonshein.com
Leah Wilkinson, 703.907.0010, leah@wilkinsonshein.com
Lyndsay Meyer, 202.416.1435, lmeyer@osa.org
Sarah Cogan, 202.416.1409, scogan@osa.org

About OFC/NFOEC: For more than 35 years, the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition/ National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) has been the premier destination for converging breakthrough research and innovation in telecommunications, optical networking and, recently, datacom and computing. Uniting service providers, systems companies, enterprise customers, IT businesses and component manufacturers, along with researchers, engineers and development teams, OFC/NFOEC combines dynamic business programming, an exposition of more than 500 companies and cutting-edge peer-reviewed research into one event that showcases the trends and pulse of the entire optical communications industry.

OFC/NFOEC is managed by the Optical Society (OSA) and co-sponsored by OSA, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Communications Society (IEEE/ComSoc) and the IEEE Photonics Society. Acting as a non-financial technical co-sponsor is Telcordia Technologies, Inc. Visit www.ofcnfoec.org

###