2026 OFC
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Optical Fiber Conference 2026
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Highlights from OFC 2026
Views expressed are those of the presenting individuals and companies and may not necessarily represent views of Converge! Network Digest or AvidThink.
1Finity Ultra Optical System OLS Built for the AI Era
Joe Mocerino, Principal Solutions Architect at 1Finity, a Fujitsu company, presents the newly launched L1000 and L2000 ultra optical systems designed as a fundamental foundation for the AI era, addressing high-capacity traffic demands, lower cost per bit per kilometer, and network sustainability through compact modular designs supporting DCI, metro, long-haul, and edge access ROADM applications.
Unpacking the New OCI MSA Optical Standard
Near Margalit, GM and VP of Optical Systems Division at Broadcom, presents the newly released OCI MSA optical standard for scale-up networks at OFC26, which reduces latency, power, and cost by utilizing wavelength division technology with four colors of light in each direction instead of high-speed serial PAM 4 lanes.
Building at Scale: Ethernet & Optics
Hasan Siraj, VP of Product Management in the Core Switching Group at Broadcom, highlights the Ethernet for Scale-Up Networking Group’s 1.0 specification and rack expansion from 64-128 XPUs to 1K XPUs. He also announces Tomahawk 6 shipping in volume production as the first to support 64 ports of 1.6Tbps with 200G SerDes and CPO, the company’s participation in the OCI MSA, and the new Jericho 4 enabling cross-data center cluster deployment.
Big News for CPO - Reliability, Availability, Serviceability
Manish Mehta, VP Marketing, Optical Systems Division at Broadcom, discusses the company’s co-packaged optics (CPO) technology demonstrated at OFC, including Meta’s announcement of trials achieving 50 million hours of link flap-free operation. He explains that CPO’s highly integrated architecture and high-volume manufacturing processes deliver extremely reliable optical links with superior RAS performance.
The New Scale-Across Architecture
Mark Bieberich, Vice President of Product Marketing at Ciena, discusses the company’s scale-across architectures for geographically distributed AI training, featuring next-generation coherent optical pluggables, new WaveLogic 6 Nano performance modes, and a roadmap toward 1600 ZR and ZR+ technologies.
GPU Cluster Connectivity
Helen Xenos, Senior Director of Portfolio Marketing at Ciena, presents the company’s innovations for GPU cluster interconnects at OFC, including the Nitro linear retimer driver for active copper cables and the Vesta 200 6.4T CPX optical engine. These solutions provide flexible, power-efficient connectivity options to help customers build high-capacity networks for modern AI infrastructure.
800G Optics, Multi-Rail Systems & Supply Chain Planning
Bill Gartner, SVP & GM, Optical Systems and Optical Business Unit at Cisco Systems, presents the company’s optical innovations at OFC, including multi-rail optical line systems supporting 128 fibers in a single rack and a new 12.8 terabit transponder with 800-gig pluggable optics. He highlights Cisco’s leadership in coherent pluggable optics for AI infrastructure.
Next-Gen Co-Packaged Optics
Rafik Ward, Chief Strategy Officer & CMO at Lumentum, presents from OFC 2026 showcasing the company’s next-generation co-packaged optics technology, including an 800mW laser in an ELSFP module and a dual ELSFP system with 16 multiplexed channels delivering 24 dBm fiber coupling.
Marvell's 800G Coherent Light Module
Vivek Thyagarajan, Application Engineer at Marvell, demonstrates the industry’s first 800G coherent light module powered by Marvell’s Aquila DSP, optimized for O-band campus data center interconnects with links up to 20 km. The demonstration shows excellent pre-FEC performance, a clear coherent constellation diagram, and zero uncorrectable code words, confirming clean link operation.
1.6T PAM4 TRO Electriccal
Rittik Shah, Senior Staff Application Engineer at Marvell, demonstrates a 1.6T PAM4 TRRO electrical system at OFC 2025, featuring RT DSP technology operating at 200 Gbps per lambda with 21 dB output TCQ and 0.995 linearity. The demonstration showcases wide open eye patterns designed for high-speed data center, AI networking, and switching fabric interconnect applications.
800G Optical Innovation
Robert Shore, Head of Optical Network Marketing at Nokia, discusses the surging demand for optical networking solutions driven by massive data center buildouts that are diversifying applications and requiring innovative, customer-specific solutions.
Connecting AI Clusters Across Multiple Data Center Sites
Manish Gulyani, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer at Nokia, explains how AI infrastructure expansion beyond single data centers is driving demand for distributed networking across multiple campus sites, with Nokia’s 7250 EXR18 half-petabit system delivering 576 ports of 800-gigabit connectivity to enable these sites to operate as unified AI clusters.
Viavi's 1.6T Test Platform
Paul Brooks, Product Line Manager at VIAVI, presents the company’s 11600 1.6 terabit tester, a third-generation platform released in 2024 that has evolved with market scaling toward 1.6 terabit capabilities. The tester features link training and 1.6 terabit MAC electrical breakout, essential for enabling high-scale 1.6 terabit deployment in AI and machine learning ecosystems.
AI Data Centers & 1.6T Testing
Steve Rumsby, Senior Director of Platform and Architecture at VIAVI, presents the company’s award-winning D2 product that enables 802.3dj 1.6T technology with GPU emulation capabilities for testing next-generation AI application workflows. Viavi is collaborating with vendors on interoperability to ensure successful deployment of 1.6T technology and Ultra Ethernet.
The New Optical Compute Interconnect (OCI)
Vivek Raghunathan, Co-Founder and CEO of Xscape Photonics, discusses the Optical Compute Interconnect (OCI) standardization consortium formed by major tech companies as an important milestone for co-packaged optics in scaleup interconnects.
Ethernet Alliance Showcase
Ethernet Evolves to Meet AI's Massive Demands
John D’Ambrosia, Chair, IEEE P802.3dj Task Force and Chair Emeritus of the Ethernet Alliance describes how the industry is advancing through standards including the nearly complete 802.3 DJ project and future 400G signaling. He emphasizes that Ethernet continues to adapt across electrical chips, optical chips, connectors, cabling, packaging, and heat management.
AI Infrastructure Form Factors & Coherent Transceivers at OFC 2026
Anabel Alarcon, Product Line Manager at EXFO, presents key trends at the Ethernet Alliance booth at OFC 2026, including OSFP-RHS for higher density AI deployments and the growing adoption of coherent transceiver technology for GPU-to-switch connectivity.
Multi-Vendor Ethernet Fabric Proving AI Workload at Scale
Vijay Murthy, Senior Technical Product Manager at Keysight Technologies, demonstrates Ethernet for AI at the Ethernet Alliance booth, showing how Ethernet supports massive AI training and inferencing workloads through a multi-vendor fabric network.
Why Testing Ensures Market Success
Keith Cole, GM & VP of Product Marketing at VeEX, leads the tech team for 800 gig to 10 gig Ethernet interconnects at the Ethernet Alliance Interop at OFC, demonstrating successful interoperability testing through live demonstrations planned since the previous year. The testing confirms that interoperability is essential for successful delivery of new technology to the market and validates that the technology works as intended.
Ethernet's Critical Role for AI Infrastructure
Peter Jones, Chair of the Ethernet Alliance, presents at OFC 2026 on how Ethernet technology must address unprecedented AI-driven infrastructure demands that are straining supply chains for chips, power, and fiber. He emphasizes that despite these immense challenges, Ethernet’s proven track record of reliability makes it the only viable solution for enabling the industry’s AI connectivity requirements.
Solving High-Speed Data Transmission Challenges
Tim Crawley, Product Marketing Engineer at VeEX, explains how the Ethernet Alliance addresses the critical challenge of delivering data between links quickly and efficiently through robust testing and verification solutions. He emphasizes that as demand for high-speed data transmission increases, Ethernet proves to be a reliable solution, and VeEX‘s participation in the Alliance.
1.6Terabit Ethernet Demos
Dave Estes, Hardware Engineer at VIAVI Solutions, presents demonstrations at the Ethernet Alliance booth at OFC 2025, showcasing the evolution toward 1.6 terabit Ethernet capabilities using 200G per lane technology with equipment from major vendors including Arista, Cisco, HPE, Keysight, Teledyne LeCroy, and others. The demonstrations feature various optical interconnects including DSP-based, LPO, and LRO configurations.
Ethernet Alliance: Ethernet Simply Works
Keith Cole, GM & VP of Product Marketing, Peter Jones, Chair, Tim Crawley, Product Marketing Engineer, David Rodgers, Technical Business Development Manager, Anabel Alarcon, Product Line Manager, and Vijay Murthy, Senior Technical Product Manager, from the Ethernet Alliance present a unified message about Ethernet technology’s reliability and effectiveness. The presenters collectively reinforce that Ethernet consistently delivers dependable performance across diverse applications.
Ethernet for AI — It Just Works… David Rodgers
David Rodgers, Technical Business Development Manager at Ethernet Alliance, presents from the organization’s booth at the Optical Fiber Conference 2026 in Los Angeles, where member participants demonstrate interoperability of Ethernet for AI with 1.6 terabit solutions alongside 800 gig and 400 gig technologies.
Broadcom's 400G/Lane Taurus Optical DSP
Gang Qiu, Product Line Manager, Marketing at Broadcom, presents Taurus, the industry’s first 400 gigabit per lambda PAM4 optical DSP designed to help customers scale AI infrastructure at OFC 2026. The solution enables next-generation low-cost, low-power 1.6 terabit transceivers and paves the path to 3.2 terabit transceivers in 200 terabit switch networking systems.
Broadcom's 3.5D Silicon
Harish Bharadwaj, VP of Marketing for the ASIC Product Division at Broadcom, discusses the company’s 3.5D silicon technology that stacks two compute dies face-to-face on an interposer, advancing beyond the industry’s standard 2.5D approach. Broadcom is now shipping its first 3.5D product to Fujitsu, with the technology being adopted across all major XPU partners.
Acacia's 1.6T Transceivers for AI Infrastructure
Per Hansen, Product Manager at Acacia, discusses the company’s 1.6T transceiver portfolio for AI infrastructure scale-out applications and the growing adoption of scale-across architectures driving demand for 800G coherent solutions, with over 25,000 units already shipped.
All-Optical Circuit Switches: 2026 the Breakthrough Year?
Jim Finch, Vice President of Commercial Strategy at Salience Labs, presents developments in all-optical switches for 2026, highlighting how OCS technology addresses data center scale-up challenges across racks where traditional solutions cannot meet performance demands. Salience Labs demonstrates a 32-port optical switch with a fully non-blocking optical crossbar.
Silicon Photonics OCS: 1000x Faster Switching
Christian Dupont, CEO of iPronics, presents the company’s silicon photonics-based optical circuit switches that achieve reconfiguration times a thousand times faster than previous solutions, enabling rapid network switching for improved reliability and performance in data centers. iPronics is establishing a production line in Thailand to meet volume demands, with their 32-radix switch currently ramping up in production and a 64×64 port OCS chip already fabricated, while planning to double radix annually to improve port density and integration.
Silicon Photonics: Integrated Lasers & DWDM at Scale
Matt Crowley, CEO of Scintil Photonics, presents the company’s heterogeneous silicon photonics technology that integrates indium phosphide lasers using a proprietary “backside on box” process. The company’s external light sources combine lasers, muxes, photodiodes, and wavelength references on a single die to address AI data center demands for dense wavelength division multiplexing, with evaluation kits shipping to select customers in Q2 and high-volume deployment expected by 2028.