Schedule

The workshop will address challenges and opportunities for future submarine systems and will be divided into two parts. The first part will deal with the need for strengthened resilience of submarine systems while historical trend is to increase transported capacity toward Pb/s. The question answered by speakers will deal with the potential interest of mesh submarine networking including technical challenges such as the power supply distribution across branches, in opposition to the usual trend to maximize throughput per cable. Possible implication of the advent of ZR+ pluggable interfaces will be discussed compared with the MIMO DSP requirements for novel linecards potentially supporting coupled core MCF in the future. While MCF appears to reach manufacturing maturity, long term evolution of subsea cables will also be discussed in the light of the advent of hollow core fibres, which may allow for reducing repeaters count and multi-band systems.

Organizers

• Jeremie Renaudier (Lead), Nokia Bell Labs, France
• Jean-Christophe Antona, Alcatel Submarine Networks Inc., France
• Ezra Ip, NEC Laboratories America Inc., USA
• Shikui Shen, China Unicom, China

Speakers

• Manabu Arikawa, NEC, Japan
• Oriol Bertran Pardo, Infinera, USA
• Alexis Carbo Meseguer, ASN, France
• Liang Dou, Alibaba Group, China
• John Downie, Corning Inc., USA
• Tetsuya Hayashi, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Japan
• Luo Jie, YOFC, China
• Mike Pan, Cisco, USA
• Pascal Pecci, Meta France, France
• Alexei Pilipetski, Subcom, USA
• Kim Roberts, Ciena Corp., Canada

OFCnet2025’s workshop embodies the OFCnet vision to be a bridge between the OFC technical conference and “networks of the future”. Over 2.5 hours, the panel-format workshop is a forum that enhances development of next-generation networks by highlighting cutting-edge technologies introduced during the OFC conference that are gaining maturity and will impact near-term production design as well as the networks of the future.

The workshop focuses on these four key areas:

• Automation and orchestration: evolving the network operations team
• Trend analysis and failure prediction: standardized data collection for machine learning
• Quantum networking early wins: report-out on the state of implementation
• Networks of the future: bleeding-edge technologies and how soon will they be here?

Each area will have two presenters to set the stage, followed by a moderated panel+audience discussion on the topic to explore the adoption of these technologies within production networks and the associated challenges.

Organizers

• Sana Bellamine (Lead), CENIC MMBI, USA
• Scotty Strachan (Lead), Nevada System of Higher Education, USA
• Akbar Kara, Ciena, USA
• James Stewart, Utah Education and Telehealth Network, USA
• Chris Tracy, ESnet, USA

Speakers

• James Deaton, Internet2, USA
• Danial Ebling, Utah Education and Telehealth Network, USA
• Lidia Galdino, Corning Optical Communications, UnitedKingdom
• Mariam Kiran, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA
• Hideki Nishizawa, NTT, Japan
• Reza Rokui, Ciena, Canada
• Dirk van den Borne, Juniper Networks, Germany
• Wenji Wu, Energy Sciences Network, USA
• John Wu, ESnet, USA

Globally Fibre to the Premise (FTTP) has now reached over 1 billion subscribers worldwide accounting for 69% of all fixed line services. This has predominantly been achieved using Passive Optical Network (PON) topologies with current deployments typically supporting 2.5Gbit/s and 10Gbit/s aggregate speeds with options for 25Gbit/s speeds and above in the future.

The fibre infrastructure now deployed will be in-place for many years to come allowing speed upgrades when required. The next step is now to take advantage of these underlying networks to meet new markets and services. This workshop will discuss:

• How can high speeds be delivered efficiently within the premise? Do Fibre-to-the-Room (FTTR) and LiFi solutions also need to be considered as part of the service offering?
• Are there opportunities for closer integration with wireless networks?
• Can fibre access networks also be used for sensing applications?
• Could edge computing leverage fibre access networks?

Organizers

• Paul Wright (Lead), British Telecommunications, UnitedKingdom
• Chathurika Ranaweera, Deakin Univ., Australia
• Simon Rommel, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Netherlands
• Gaël Simon, Orange Labs, France
• Lilin Yi, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

Speakers

• Rene Bonk, Nokia Bell Labs, Germany
• Philippe Chanclou, Orange, France
• Volker Jungnickel, Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute, Germany
• Maxim Kuschnerov, Huawei, France
• Chathurika Ranaweera, Deakin Univ., Australia
• Marco Ruffini, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
• Vincent Sleiffer, Adtran, Sweden

This workshop aims to explore the practical niche applications of linear optical circuits, shedding light on the critical steps needed to transition these advancements into commercial products. It will delve into several key sectors where linear algebra optics can make a substantial impact, including optical neural networks, optical beamformers, MIMO processors, and quantum computing.

By bringing together academic researchers and industry experts, the workshop will identify practical niche applications, discuss key enabling photonic technologies, and explore the commercialization potential of linear optical circuits.

Organizers

• Nikos Pleros (Lead), Aristoteleio Panepistimio Thessalonikis, Greece
• Chaoran Huang, Chinese University of Hong Kong, HongKong

Speakers

• Harish Bhaskaran, University of Oxford, Salience Labs, UnitedKingdom
• Elena Goi, USST, China
• Xianxin Guo, Lumai, UnitedKingdom
• Imon Kundu, Optalysys Ltd., UnitedKingdom
• Andrea Melloni, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
• David Miller, Stanford University, USA
• Logan Wright, Yale University, USA
• Kyoungsisk Yu, KAIST, Korea_RepublicOf

The convergence of high-rate communications with multiparameter environmental sensing presents a transformative opportunity to enhance infrastructure monitoring and data transmission capabilities. The workshop addresses the question “ISAC - Best of both worlds or best of neither?” We will discuss whether ISAC offers true advantages, particularly in the optical domain, or if separate systems for sensing and communications may be the better option.

Key Learning Points

• What are the true advantages of ISAC systems, compared to traditional separate systems for sensing and communication?
• How do ISAC systems perform in different media, specifically in fiber and FSO environments?
• Are ISAC systems the best solution for modern communication and sensing needs, or do they fall short in critical aspects?
• What are the primary advantages of ISAC systems from the perspective of network operators and end-users?
• Can ISAC technologies make a transition from research to market within next 5 years?

Organizers

• Oskars Ozolins (Lead), Riga Technical University, Latvia
• Prince Anandarajah, Dublin City University, Ireland
• Bernhard Schrenk, Austrian Institute of Technology, Austria
• Hiroshi Takahashi, NTT Corp., Japan

Speakers

• Florian Azendorf, ADTRAN, Germany
• Mehdi Asghari, SiLC Technologies, USA
• Steinar Bjørnstad, TAMPNET, Norway
• Sterenn Guerrier, Nokia Bell-Labs, France
• Shuren Hu, Vanderbilt University & Aurora Tech, USA
• Chihiro Kito, NTT, Japan
• Francesco Morichetti, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
• Xianbin Yu, Zhejiang University, China

Digital coherent technologies have revolutionized optical communications and used to be the dominant topic with numerous research results in OFC. However, the pace of innovation has slowed, and the volume of DSP research has dropped significantly. What is the future of research into coherent DSP? Are there any fundamental research problems left to address? Will topics like pluggable DSP require strong innovative research, or have we reached a point where we will only see minor asymptotic improvements in the future? Can new components and analog technologies reduce or eliminate the need for DSP? How much DSP will future transceivers require? Can a hybrid of analog and DSP achieve ultimate low energy consumption? Are we running out of coherent innovation?                                  

Organizers

• David Millar (Lead), Infinera Corp., USA
• Yi Cai, Soochow Univ., China
• Gabriele Liga, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Netherlands
• Zhixin Liu, University College London, UnitedKingdom

Speakers

• Matthias Berger, Coherent, Germany
• James Harley, Ciena, Canada
• Magnus Karlsson, Chalmers University, Sweden
• Kishore Kota, Marvell Technologies, USA
• Leslie Rusch, Université Laval, Canada
• Seb Savory, Cambridge University, UnitedKingdom
• Han Sun, Infinera, Canada
• Yuta Wakayama, KDDI, Japan

There has been an emerging need for laser light sources with new and improved capabilities to enable next generation optical interconnects – for scale-up and scale-out interconnect fabrics that are of particular importance in AI compute hardware.  Moving to higher laser output power is driven both by serial interfaces going to higher baud rates, and by interest in sharing the output of a single light source across multiple links in either serial or parallel interfaces. Meanwhile, tight integration of optical interconnect with processors and high total bandwidths are driving high wall-plug efficiency.  And, the mapping of wide parallel interfaces like UCIe to optics is calling for a roadmap of multi-wavelength sources with 8, 16 and perhaps more wavelengths, as well as multi-port output, leading a single laser source package into the multiple-watts domain.

This workshop will address progress and different approaches in increasing power, wall-plug efficiency, and wavelength and port count in lasers for next-gen interconnects, with an emphasis on not only performance (power, temperature stability, wavelength spacing uniformity, power imbalance, etc.), but also reliability, serviceability, cost, and potential for scaling on a roadmap that supports the growing compute needs in the years to come.

Some questions that will be addressed:

• What are the key advantages and disadvantages of DFB laser/laser array based, Kerr and electro-optic comb based, mode-locked laser based, and other approaches to multi-wavelength sources, in the short and long term?
• How to address the challenges of achieving higher power/multi-wavelength without compromising performance, complexity, and reliability?
• Is SOA integration a viable approach to increasing power and does it justify the added noise and complexity?
• Are integrated and remote light sources both viable options for OIO and CPO in terms of power, efficiency, reliability…?

Organizers

• Milos Popovic (Lead), Ayar Labs / Boston University, USA
• Ben Lee, NVIDIA, USA
• Hai-Feng Liu, HG Genuine Optics Tech Co Ltd, USA
• Wei Shi, Université Laval, Canada

Speakers

• Milind Gokhale, Casela Technologies, USA
• Daisuke Inoue, Sumitomo, Japan
• John Johnson, Broadcom, USA
• Richard Jones, Intel Corporation (IPS), USA
• Alexey Kovsh, Alfalume, USA
• Mike Larson, Lumentum, USA
• Alan Liu, Quintessent, USA
• Sylvie Menezo, SCINTIL Photonics, France
• Yoshi Okawachi, Xscape Photonics, USA
• Radek Roucka, Ayar Labs, USA
• Suresh Venkatesan, POET Technologies, Canada

Hollow core optical fibers (HCFs) are maturing fast and now offer record low attenuation across all key transmission bands (including O,E,S,C,L and U), combined with ultimate low latency, unmatched radiation resistance and low non-linearity. In parallel, significant advances have been demonstrated in the development of low loss, robust HCF interconnections with key components, as well as progress in cabling and early investigations into the lifetime and reliability of these specialty fibers.

Therefore, industrial interest in HCFs is growing and these fibers are now beginning to be deployed in a range of applications. However, are we ready for this and what is missing? 

In this workshop we will explore the key opportunities and challenges in the practical deployment of HCF, including:

• HCF performance metrics compared to conventional fibres
• Leading and emerging applications
• What is needed to realise a HCF network?
• Lifetime, reliability and interconnections
• Current fabrication limits and cost

Organizers

• Natalie Wheeler (Lead), Univ. of Southampton, UnitedKingdom
• Jose Antonio-Lopez, Univ. of Central Florida, CREOL, USA
• Vladimir Gordienko, Aston Univ., UnitedKingdom
• Hesham Sakr, Microsoft Corp., UnitedKingdom
• Yi Sun, OFS Fitel LLC, USA

Speakers

• Rodrigo Amezcua Correa, Relativity Networks, USA
• Paolo Dainese, Corning, USA
• Russell Ellis, Microsoft, UnitedKingdom
• Kerrianne Harringtone, University of Bath, UnitedKingdom
• Matěj Komanec, CTU, Prague, CzechRepublic
• Andrew Lord, BT, UnitedKingdom
• Kazunori Mukasa, Furukawa, Japan
• Mohammad Pasandi, Ciena, Canada
• Pierluigi Poggiolini, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
• Yingying Wang, Linfiber and Jinan University, China

This workshop focuses on the critical obstacles the industry must overcome to transition Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) from emerging technology to scalable, volume manufacturing. Attendees will engage in in-depth discussions on how to address key bottlenecks and mitigate risks along the CPO supply chain, from foundries to field deployment.

Topics include designing for manufacturability and Assembly Design Kits (ADKs), advanced semiconductor packaging challenges such as increasing fiber count at increasingly smaller pitches, interposers and through-silicon vias (TSVs), and effective thermal management at both the package and system levels.

We will also explore the reliability and safety of high-power external lasers, operational risks associated with embedded lasers, and the importance of well-defined interfaces and roles among ASIC manufacturers, OSATs, and contract manufacturers, to create a future manufacturable ecosystem for CPO.

Organizers

• Yoojin Ban (Lead), IMEC, Belgium
• Juthika Basak, Advanced Micro Devices, USA
• Takako Hirokawa, GlobalFoundries, USA
• Sudip Shekhar, Univ. of British Columbia, Canada
• Antonio Tartaglia, Ericsson, Italy

Speakers

• Giorgio Cazzaniga, JABIL, Italy
• Tom Gray, NVIDIA, USA
• Robert Lee, Corning, USA
• Hiroyuki Mieno, AGC, Japan
• Akihiro Noriki, AIST, Japan
• Bardia Pezeshki, AVICENA, USA
• Nicholas Psaila, INTEL, UnitedKingdom
• Anand Ramaswamy, Broadcom, USA
• Sander Roosendaal, SYNOPSYS, Netherlands
• Pooya Tadayon, Ayar Labs, USA
• Matt Traverso, Marvell, USA

As optical networks evolve to meet growing demands for bandwidth, density (i.e. bits per rack unit), and scalability, power efficiency has become a critical challenge. Power consumption not only affects the operational cost and environmental impact of optical networks, but also imposes physical constraints on the design, deployment, and operation of optical systems and components.

This workshop brings together leading experts from user, supplier, and academic sectors to explore power consumption issues and innovative solutions. Presenters will focus on real-world challenges and best practices for both the user side (cloud providers, telecom operators) and the supplier side (transponder, line system, and switch vendors). The workshop aims to identify and discuss key power bottlenecks, showcase state-of-the-art solutions, and foster collaboration across the industry. Attendees will gain valuable insights and contribute to shaping the future of sustainable networking by driving innovation and efficiency in optical network design.

Organizers

• Binbin Guan (Lead), Microsoft Corp., USA
• Mattia Cantono, Google LLC, USA
• Lynn Nelson, AT&T Labs, USA
• Luca Valcarenghi, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Italy

Speakers

• Marco Bertolini, Nokia, Italy
• Giuseppe Bordogna, Ciena, Canada
• Alessio Ferrari, Microsoft, USA
• Lorenzo Ghioni, Cisco, Italy
• Andreas Gladisch, DT, Germany
• Julia Larikova, Infinera, USA
• Jose Maranhao, Google, USA
• Kentaro Nakamura, Fujitsu, Japan
• Jeff Rahn, Meta, USA
• Yoshiaki Sone, NTT, Japan

Unlike the performance-oriented transponders, pluggables trade-off performance for cost, size and energy with fast adoption of 400ZR/400ZR+, ongoing standardization for 800ZR/ZR+ and 1600ZR/ZR+ in sight. A pluggable from a vendor may be hosted in the shelf (an optical ROADM or an IP router) from another vendor. Current IP and optical transport networks, or even optical networks from different vendors, are managed separately. The inclusion of a pluggable from vendor on equipment from another vendor blurs control and management boundaries and raise many issues.

In this workshop, the following open challenges will be addressed:

• Which alternatives are valid for hierarchical SDN control of disaggregated networks?
• What are the current limitations of the recently proposed standards?
• Who owns the responsibility for malfunction of each component?
• Overall, who will be responsible for the pluggable – the layer/operational unit in charge of the pluggable, or of the system (ROADM or IP router) that hosts the pluggable?

Organizers

• Yvan Pointurier (Lead), Huawei Technologies, France
• Juan Pedro Fernández-Palacios, Telefonica R&D, Spain
• Ricard Vilalta, Centre Tecnològic Telecom de Catalunya, Spain

Speakers

• Ahsaan Yousaf, Google, USA
  A Hyperscaler’s Perspective on Pluggable Management
• Arash Vakili, Meta, USA
  ZR Integration in Meta’s Backbone and Metro Network
• Xu Zhou, Baidu, China
  Challenges of Pluggable Transceivers in Disaggregated Network for Traditional DCI and AI Training Network
• Hideki Nishizawa, NTT, Japan
  Cloud-Native/Centralized Approach: Remote Control Agent (RCA) for Secure Operation of Coherent Transceivers
• Tony Dicorato, Nokia, Canada
  Unifying Control and Cross-Domain Management for Coherent Pluggables in Disaggregated Networks
• Reza Rokui, Ciena, Canada
  Coherent Pluggables in Packet Over Optical Network(IETF Activities on Control, Modelling and Use-Cases)
• Xiang Liu, Huawei Technologies, HongKong
  Intelligent Control of Smart Optical Modules in AI-Era Optical Networks
• Raul Muñoz, CTTC, Spain
  The Nightmare of Hierarchical SDN Control for Coherent Pluggable Transceivers in Disaggregated IPoWDM Networks

In response to exploding large language model size, machine learning clusters are rapidly scaling up in node injection bandwidth and number of nodes. GPU injection bandwidths are currently ~10 Tbps per GPU and roughly doubling every two years. Cluster sizes are trending upwards as well, spanning many racks in some cases. Link reliability is ever more important as clusters grow. Thus the industry needs cost effective, reliable, and extremely dense intra-cluster scale-up links. Our speakers will take their best shots at the following aspirational goals in the 2030 timeframe:

• 10 meter reach;
• > 1 Tbps/mm (per direction) of host ASIC die-edge bandwidth density;
• Link energy well under 5 pJ/bit, host ASIC to host ASIC, including any DSP and laser sources;
• Reliability better than 10 FIT per link (normalized to a 400 Gbps link)  [note copper today is roughly 1 FIT];
• Cost < 0.10 $/Gbps host to host, including fiber and connectors.

Organizers

• Trey Greer (Lead), NVIDIA, USA
• Connie Chang-Hasnain, Berxel Photonics, USA

Speakers

• Karl Bois, NVIDIA, USA
• Tzu-Hao Chow, Broadcom, USA
• Julie Eng, Coherent, USA
• Ben Foo, Microsoft, USA
• Thomas Liljeberg, Intel Corp., USA
• Nhat Nguyen, Ayar Labs, USA
• Matt Sysak, Lumentum, USA

This workshop explores potential solutions enabling future ≥400 Gbit/s/λ with intensity modulation and direct detection (IM-DD) for data center applications. We will set the stage by reviewing drivers and applications of this future generation technology. We will then examine both optical and electronic components integral to the realization of 400G/λ. Our speakers will provide insights into the evolution of optical gearboxes, addressing the complexities associated with symbol rate scaling, advanced multiplexing and modulation techniques applied to different degrees of freedom, as well as high-speed modulating materials, such as TFLN, polymer or BTO. Concurrently, we will navigate through the future landscape of high-speed electrical interfaces, focusing on developments in digital multiplexing (SERDES), analog multiplexing techniques, and signal integrity considerations that far surpass the 100 Gbaud threshold. The workshop will feature an impressive lineup of speakers from both industry as well as academia, who are at the forefront of research and development

Organizers

• Robert Borkowski (Lead), Nokia Bell Labs, USA
• Patrick Lo, Advanced Micro Foundry Pte Ltd, Singapore
• Ying Zhao, Aloe Semiconductor Inc., USA
• Chen Zhu, Bytedance, China

Speakers

• Andreas Bechtolsheim, Arista, USA
• Yosef Ben-Ezra, NewPhotonics, Israel
• Chris Doerr, Aloe Semiconductor, USA
• Reza Eftekhar, Amazon Web Services, USA
• Christian Koos, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
• Shirao Mizuki, Mitsubishi Electric, Japan
• Masanori Nakamura, NTT, Japan
• Vasudevan Parthasarathy, Broadcom, USA
• M. Ashkan Seyedi, NVIDIA, USA
• Anna Tatarczak, Coherent, USA
• Jiejiang Xing, ByteDance, China
• Cai Xinlun, Liobate, China

Learn the most powerful techniques expert researchers and professionals use to enhance productivity and make life easier. Join us and take this chance to upgrade your work methods and discuss while enjoying lots of food and drinks in an informal, relaxed, and fun way. Our everyday research is most fun and productive when concentrating on creative problem-solving. Good news: tools are available for almost all other tasks to simplify your engineering life. Many software packages written by the large community allow you to quickly and easily automate menial tasks, build graphical user interfaces, visualize data, and much more! This event aims to bring awareness of these packages by hosting multiple interactive demos of primarily free and open-source software built in easy-to-learn languages such as Python. The demos are set up around informal discussion tables with plenty of time for inspiring discussion and questions, alternated with lighting talks and videos showing the usage of these tools. This event is an opportunity to tap into and use the available public resources and learn about the newest tools developed by Ph.D. students and researchers. From students to highly experienced experts, everybody is welcome to learn and share ways to boost their research. Benefit and learn from the trial-and-error of others and get a kickstart in productivity!

Organizers

• Amol Delmade, Dublin City University, Ireland
• Giammarco Di Sciullo, Università degli Studi dell’Aquila, Italy
• Marco Eppenberger, PsiQuantum, USA
• Besma Kalla, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
• Menno van den Hout, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
• Vincent van Vliet, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
• Rekha Yadav, University College London, UnitedKingdom