OFC 2014 industry reflections - Part 1

Gazettabyte is asking industry figures for their thoughts following the recent OFC 2014 exhibition and conference: the noteworthy developments and trends, what they learnt at the show, and the topics to track in the coming year.  

T.J. Xia, distinguished member of technical staff at Verizon

The CFP2 form factor pluggable - analogue coherent optics (CFP2-ACO) at 100 and 200 Gig will become the main choice for metro core networks in the near future. 

I learnt that the discrete multitone (DMT) modulation format seems the right choice for a low-cost, single-wavelength direct-detection 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE)  interface for data ports, and a 4xDMT for 400GbE ports. 

As for developments to watch, photonic switches will play a much more important role for intra-data centre connections. As the port capacity of top-of-rack switches gets larger, photonic switches have more cost advantages over middle stage electrical switches.

Don McCullough, Ericsson's director of strategic communications at group function technology

The biggest trend in networking right now is software-defined networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), and both were on display at OFC. We see that the combination of SDN and NFV in the control and software domains will directly impact optical networks. The Ericsson-Ciena partnership embodies this trend with its agreement to develop joint transport solutions for IP-optical convergence and service provider SDN. 

We learnt that network transformation, both at the control layer (SDN and NFV) and at the data plane layer, including optical, is happening at the network operators. Related to that, we also saw interest at OFC in the announcement that AT&T made at Mobile World Congress about their User-Defined Network Cloud and Domain 2.0 strategy where AT&T has selected to work with Ericsson on integration and transformation services.

We will continue to watch the on-going deployment of SDN and NFV to control wide area networks including optical. We expect more joint developments agreements to connect SDN and NFV with optical networking, like the Ericsson-Ciena one.  

One new thing for 2014 is that we expect to see open source projects like OpenStack and Open DayLight play increasingly important roles in the transformation of networks.

Brandon Collings, JDSU's CTO for communications and commercial optical products

The announcements of integrated photonics for coherent CFP2s was an important development in the 100 Gig progression. While JDSU did not make an announcement at OFC, we are similarly engaged with our customers on pluggable approaches for coherent 100 Gig.

I would like to see convergence around 400 Gig client interface standards

There is a lack of appreciation of the data centre operators who aren’t big household names.  While the mega data centre operators have significant influence and visibility, the needs of the numerous, smaller-sized operators are largely under-represented.

I would like to see convergence around 400 Gig client interface standards.  Lots of complex technology here, challenges to solve and options to do so.  But ambiguity in these areas is typically detrimental to the overall industry.


Mike Freiberger, principal member of technical staff, Verizon

The emergence of 100 Gig for metro, access, and data centre reach optics generated a lot of contentious debate. Maybe the best way forward as an industry isn’t really solidified just yet.

What did I learn? Verizon is a leader in wireless backhaul and is growing its options at a rate faster than the industry.

The two developments that caught my attention are 100 Gig short-reach and above-100-Gig research. 100 Gig short-reach because this will set the trigger point for the timing of 100 Gig interfaces really starting to sell in volume. Research on data rates faster than 100 Gig because price-per-bit always has to come downward.