Intel

David Rodgers, Technical Business Development Manager with the Ethernet Alliance, and Sam Johnson, Link Applications Engineering Manager at Intel and High-Speed Networking Chair, discuss the second 224-gigabit Plugfest event at Keysight in Santa Clara, where over 20 companies test actual product interoperability across multiple vendors while nine compliance stations feed critical data back into IEEE specification development.

Cristina Rodriguez, VP and GM of Network & Edge Group at Intel, forecasts widespread AI deployments using CPU native capabilities for radio algorithms and infrastructure optimization, enterprise adoption of on-premises edge computing with multi-tenancy support, and intensive industry focus on defining 6G standards and monetization strategies.

Alex Quach, VP and GM of the Wireline and Core Network Division at Intel, explains how telecom providers are upgrading networks with AI capabilities and enhanced power efficiency through the company's Xeon processor families. The new processors deliver significant performance gains and power savings while supporting both networking and AI workloads, particularly at network edges and cell sites.

Christian Urricariet, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Integrated Photonics Solutions at Intel, presents the company's latest advancements in silicon photonics at OFC 2025, including their OCI chiplet and 1.6 terabit per second components for pluggable transceivers. Building on their extensive experience in silicon photonics, Intel has achieved significant production milestones with over 8 million transceivers shipped and is expanding their photonic manufacturing capabilities at their New Mexico facility.

Cristina Rodriguez, VP Network & Edge Group and GM Wireless Access Network Division at Intel, highlighted the importance of AI in networking and cloud technology, emphasizing that the network must be prepared to support AI capabilities with existing technology. She discussed Intel's role in this, mentioning the launch of the fourth generation of Intel's scalable processor with vRAN boost in 2023, the future generation platform, Granite Rapid D, in 2024, and the early availability of the Intel vRAN AI development kit, all aimed at enhancing performance, power efficiency, and cost-effectiveness while supporting new revenue streams.

Christian Urricariet from Intel's Silicon Photonics Product Division, unveiled the company's first Optical Compute Interconnect (OCI) chiplet, a high-density optical IO solution capable of supporting up to 4 terabits per second bi-directionally, enabling it to interconnect CPU or other high-performance chips.

Intel is making a strategic shift from providing full transceiver modules to supplying key chipsets for the growing pluggable market in silicon photonics. At OFC24, Intel also announced 1.6 Tbps components supporting 200G/lane for both the DR and FR formats. Amit Nagra, VP and GM of the Silicon Photonics Product Division, shares highlights.

Mike Li, a Fellow at Intel, discusses high-speed networking advancements for AI applications, including 200 Gbps per lane Ethernet specifications and development of 800 Gbps/1.6 Tbps Ethernet. Li emphasizes Ethernet's importance for GPU acceleration and clustering architectures, while also highlighting ongoing work towards 400 Gbps per lane speeds and future generations reaching up to 6.4 Tbps.

Sam Johnson, Link Applications Engineering Manager at Intel, emphasizes the critical role of Ethernet interoperability in networking and AI applications. As chair of the Ethernet Alliance's highspeed networking subcommittee, Johnson highlights the organization's efforts to promote collaboration and testing among vendors to advance the Ethernet ecosystem.

Uri Elzur, GPU Networks and System Architecture at Intel, outlines the Ultra Ethernet Consortium's approach to addressing AI-related challenges in data center architecture and networking. He describes the consortium's collaboration with the Ethernet Alliance to enhance Ethernet's capabilities for AI applications through optional features like link-level retry and credit-based flow control.

Operators are embracing open RAN and virtual RAN initiatives as a way to deploy 5G networks. Cristina Rodriguez, Vice President of Network Edge and General Manager of the Wireless Access Network Division at Intel, talks about Intel's RAN journey and what Open RAN can offer operators. Download AvidThink's 2021 Open RAN Report to explore key infrastructure considerations for Open RAN and O-RAN adoption.

Open RAN is about bringing multiple components together. In this video, Cristina Rodriguez, Vice President of Network Edge and General Manager of the Wireless Access Network Division at Intel, talks about the innovation Open RAN brings and the thriving ecosystem. Download AvidThink's 2021 Open RAN Report to explore key infrastructure considerations for Open RAN and O-RAN adoption.

Every major operator has signaled their intent to deploy open RAN or virtual RAN solutions. In this video, Cristina Rodriguez, Vice President of Network Edge and General Manager of the Wireless Access Network Division at Intel, shares examples of major operators with trials or deployments. Download AvidThink's 2021 Open RAN Report to explore key infrastructure considerations for Open RAN and O-RAN adoption.

Open RAN brings the opportunity for more participation from the ecosystem. In this video, Cristina Rodriguez, Vice President of Network Edge and General Manager of the Wireless Access Network Division at Intel, talks about the objective of open RAN and the importance of collaboration to advance the journey. Download AvidThink's 2021 Open RAN Report to explore key infrastructure considerations for Open RAN and O-RAN adoption.

Telcos are reinventing the central office architecture to take advantage of server economics, says Alex Quach, Vice President and General Manager, Wireline and Core Networks Division. Network functions are being distributed to the edge and x86 is an enabling technology.