1、A Dynamic Global Optical Communication Event

OFC refers to Optical Fiber Communication Conference & Exposition and the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference, which is organized by Optical Society of America (OSA), The American Communications Society (IEEE/ComSoc) and The American laser and Optoelectronics Association (IEEE/LEOS). OFC/NFOEC is the most important event in the global photoelectric optical communication exhibition.

OFC gathers rich resources. Numerous new ideas, industry leading ideas and hundreds of exhibitors show the research progress of their latest technologies in optical communication modules, systems and networks in this exhibition. In the optical communication industry, professionals from all over the world meet here to share knowledge, establish contacts, discover business opportunities and jointly promote the development of the industry.

The 47th OFC Technical Conference and exhibition has been held in San Diego, California, USA as scheduled. It lasts from March 6 to 10, and today is also the last day of the exhibition.

Due to the severe COVID-19 outbreak in Shenzhen, China, Optizone regretted not being able to attend the exhibition as scheduled. However, there are still many optical communication friends who may have local offices, who attended the exhibition, and said: although shrouded in the shadow of war and epidemic, we optical communicators are still very optimistic to get together in Santiago and contribute our limited strength to the future of optical communication. And this in itself is a good opportunity! 

2、Information from the Industry

Similar to last year, silicon optics, data centers, 5G, coherence, CPO/NPO are still hot spots.

Different from last year, this year several top module manufacturers have started to conduct live demo on various modules with 800G speed and coherent modules with 400G ZR.

Insiders speculate: This also fully reflects OFC's predominance in the Chinese market. At present, only a few companies in the U.S. market have begun to deploy 400G modules on a large scale. And the real commercial demand for 800G seems a long way off.

In addition, this year's conference began to discuss some cutting-edge topics, such as 6G, 1.6T, 200G per lamda, Machine Learning, AI, Quantum and so on.

3、Exciting Contents

The topic of this conference is plentiful. Where is the real focus? Today, after watching the most important plenary session, I found that OFC organizers are trying to show us the future development direction of optics through three keynote speeches:

Silicon Light

John Bowers, University of  California Santa Barbara

Silicon light is the first keynote speech of the most important plenary session in OFC This shows that the importance of silicon light in OFC. Some main points of the speech are as follows:

• one of the difficulties of silicon light is how to integrate laser, modulator, PD and various passive devices. At present, there are many options (independent laser, hybrid integration, heterogeneous integration and monolithic integration). But each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Meanwhile, heterogeneous integration has made a lot of progress recently.

• heterogeneous integration - integrating a variety of passive and active devices from infrared to visible light.

• Heterogeneous integrated tunable lasers can be used in O,E,S,C,L waves.

• the new 3~5 group semiconductor cutting technology has brought many benefits.

• silicon nitride waveguides have many advantages, such as ultra-low loss

 5G and the Promise of Industry 4.0

Elise Neel, Verizon New  Business Incubation

The second keynote is presented by the dynamic Elise, from well known carrier Verizon. She focused in 5G and industry 4.0.

There was a glitch at the end of the presentation when one of the two robots she brought seemed to suddenly break down. But she was quick to say that we need a lot of partners.

• definition of what Industry 4.0 is;
  
• interconnection of all things;
  
• information transparency;
  
• high level of technical support;
  
• decentralization of decision making;
  

• Industry 4.0 can bring many benefits to customers;
  

•  industry 4.0 is still in its infancy and has great potential
  
  

•  industrial customers have many pain points in digital transformation;
  

• Verizon has good solutions in hand to solve these difficulties from customers;
  
  

• finally, an example is given: a robot dog detects that a car has been parked for 24 hours without leaving. How it starts to work, and eliminates all kinds of dangers, etc.
  

Communicating with Spacecraft,  Landers, Rovers, and Human Missions

The third keynote speaker is James Green, NASA's chief scientific adviser. The theme is: communication with spacecraft, landers, Rovers and human missions

• outer space network communication - the higher the frequency, the better
  
  

•  reviewed the history of the Apollo moon landing program. Reminds me of Tom Hanks' classic film "Apollo 13"
  

• there are many precious mineral resources on the moon (NASA did not spend taxpayers' money blindly, and there will be huge returns in the future). In the brackets, I said for him.
  

•  NASA's lunar surface exploration program in recent years;
  
  

• future long-term lunar exploration plan;
  

• after the moon, start talking about Mars. I was shocked to learn that Mars was a blue planet with water. Later, after a long time of evolution, it became the ghost of today. Will the earth have the same fate?
  

• history of various Mars probes;
  

• The Mars Rover communicates with Earth at a frequency of 8.4GHz, according to the Planetary Science Foundation;
  

• communication frequency between Mars probe and earth - 8.4ghz
  
  

• Festival proudly introduces Ingenuity, the first aircraft to fly on an alien planet (Mars);
  

• finally, we encourage you that optical communication can make a lot of contributions to the cause of outer space exploration in the future.
  

4、Conclusion --Reference to others

The organizers of OFC conference are really broad minded and far sighted.

Starting with silicon light, let's continue to improve the technology of light and electricity so that light can be used in more fields in the future. 

Finally, directly rise to outer space, allowing light to travel from the Earth to the deepest parts of the universe and help humanity go further into the future.

Then it moves to 5G-Industry 4.0, bringing light from traditional Telecom and Datacom to a broader world and help more manufacturing enterprises digitize (think of the cooperation between Huawei and coal enterprises).

If we think carefully and deeply, where is the real wealth in the future? I think the greatest wealth is in everyone's mind and heart. Only a large number of free and exploring souls can constantly develop new technologies and master new knowledge. So that human beings can better transform and use the objective world.

Resources with the growth of human knowledge can be unlimited, oil exploitation is over, human will have a better way to get resources from nature. Our mindset needs to change from playing limited games to playing unlimited games.

To maximize the creativity of everyone, we need a social environment with greater freedom, equality and mutual respect. This environment can accommodate and tolerate all kinds of different people, let them continue to try and error.

James Green of NASA has a free soul, which makes me deeply feel his love for what he is doing. This love can infect and inspire everyone around him, which is a huge magnetic field.

While keeping our feet on the ground to do our work at hand, let's also raise our heads and look up at the starry sky to make our own contributions to the better future of mankind!