OSA NEWS
February 25, 2005
FACTS ABOUT OFC/NFOEC 2005
Exhibitors: Approx. 650 (Approx. 40 percent International from 28 countries)
Exhibit Space: 150,000 net square feet
Paper Submissions: 1,008 ( 216 NFOEC-specific submissions)
Speakers: Keynotes by Dr. Donald Keck, retired vice president research director, Corning Incorporated and Hiromichi Shinohara, director, NTT Access Network Service Systems Labs., Japan
Sessions: 126
General Chairs: Thomas Afferton, Northrop Grumman TASC, USA
Douglas Baney, Agilent Labs, USA
Committee Chairs: George Harvey, Tyco Submarine Systems, USA
Lynn Nelson, OFS Fitel Labs, USA
Sponsors : IEEE/ComSoc, IEEE/LEOS, OSA
Non-Financial Technical Sponsors : Telcordia Technologies, IOOC
OFC and NFOEC joined forces in May 2005 to create one comprehensive optical communications event to reach every audience from service providers to optical equipment manufacturers and beyond. For the first time, the optical communications community has one conference and exhibition that will address every level of the field.
Milestones
1975 – The first OFC, known then as Optical Fiber Transmission (OFT), takes place in Williamsburg, Virginia.
1979 – OFT changes its name to Optical Fiber Communication (OFC).
1985 – The first National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (NFOEC) was hosted by the newly formed RBOCs and what was then Bellcore.
1995 – The Commercial Technology program was introduced at OFC to provide a high level take on industry developments.
2000 - 2002 – OFC was named Tradeshow Week's fastest growing association show in North America.
2003 – OFC launches the Service Provider Summit and OFC's Market Watch: Business and Technology TM
2005 – OFC and NFOEC join forces to create the world's most comprehensive optical communications event.
About the Sponsors
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Communications Society (IEEE/ComSoc) – IEEE/ComSoc is a Community comprised of a diverse group of industry professionals with a common interest in advancing all communications technologies. To that end, the Society sponsors publications, conferences, educational programs, local activities, and technical committees. Visit IEEE/ComSoc at www.comsoc.org.
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (IEEE/LEOS) - IEEE/LEOS is focused on advancing the interests of its members and the laser, optoelectronics, and photonics professional community by: providing opportunities for information exchange, continuing education, and professional growth; publishing journals, sponsoring conferences, and supporting local chapter and student activities; formally recognizing the professional contributions of members; representing the laser, optoelectronics, and photonics community and serving as its advocate within the IEEE, the broader scientific and technical community, and society at large. Visit IEEE/LEOS at www.i-leos.org.
Optical Society of America (OSA) – Representing more than 15,000 members from approximately 100 different countries, OSA promotes the worldwide generation, application and dissemination of optics and photonics knowledge through its meetings, events and journals. Since its founding in 1916, OSA member benefits, programming, publications, products and services have set the industry's standard of excellence. Visit OSA at www.osa.org.
OFC/NFOEC 2005 – Hot Topics
FTTx – An International Perspective: Hear experts from Asia Pac, Europe and the US discuss the latest trends and developments in FTTx. On the exhibit floor - FTTH/PON Demonstration and Resources Area. A look at the economic merits of FTTH/PON and HFC architectures and prospective broadband access architectures such as broadband power line (BPL) and fiber-to-the-curb with radio drops (i.e. “Wi-Fi”) to the home.
Delivering Convergence with Intelligent Ethernet Services: Voice, video and data convergence is resulting in new requirements for deployment of advanced services from the enterprise access point to the metro network core. A look at how Intelligent Ethernet services satisfy these new requirements using existing infrastructure to maximize the current network investment.
International Theater: a one-stop venue showcasing the latest technology advances from around the world. Programming highlights include presentations from Montreal Photonic Network, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan and Brazil Photonics.
“10 Optical Technologies That Rock: organized in conjunction with Telecommunications Magazine. Special exhibit area featuring companies showcasing the industry's hottest technologies: SFPs; widely tunable lasers; OTN (G.709); managed CWDM; semiconductor optical amps (SOAs); Ethernet PON; Ethernet over SONET; storage over SONET; wavelength selective switches; and Gigabit Ethernet.
Unique Technical Topics
The OptIPuter
OptIPuter is the acronym used for an experimental system architecture that tightly couples computing, storage, visualization and networking to exploit the rapidly expanding capabilities of fiber optic networks. The OptIPuter uses the Internet's IP communications protocol over dedicated optical connections to support advanced applications in medical and geophysical imaging techniques. Paper OWG7, “The OptIPuter, Quartzite and Starlight Projects: A Campus to Global-Scale Testbed for Optical Technologies Enabling LambdaGrid Computing.” - Attend this session on Wednesday, March 9 at 3:00 p.m., Room 303C-D
Building the First Interplanetary Laser Link
Slated to transmit information at up to 30 million bits per second (as fast as some optical-fiber connections), the Mars Laser Communications Demonstration is intended to be the first laser-based interplanetary communications link. The $300 million NASA experiment will be launched on the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (MTO), scheduled for liftoff in 2009. Paper OWA1, “The Mars Laser Communications Demonstration Project: Truly Ultralong-Haul Optical Transport.” - Attend this session on Wednesday, March 9 at 1:30 p.m., Ballroom A
Quantum Data Transmission Over Conventional Metropolitan Systems
A new technical achievement promises to reduce the costs and widen the availability of “quantum cryptography”—a new form of encryption which is far more secure than any other method for transmitting sensitive information such as bank passwords or classified information. For the first time, researchers have transmitted an essential component of a quantum-cryptography system known as a “quantum key”—a stream of photons that decodes a separate stream of encrypted data—through a conventional metropolitan optical-fiber network. Papers OWI2, “Demonstration of 1.3 µm Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) Compatibility with 1.5 µm Metropolitan Wavelength Division Multiplexed (WDM) Systems,” and OWI1, “Quantum Key Distribution - The Science of Secret Communication.” - Attend these sessions on Wednesday, March 9 starting at 4:00 p.m., Ballroom A
Ultra-Long-Haul Transmission at 20 Gigabits
A 1200-km optical fiber between Sacramento and Salt Lake City can transmit data 10 gigabits per second without regeneration (while simultaneously using 40 to 80 different wavelengths). Now researchers will report increasing the transmission rate to 40 gigabits per second on this same fiber without any additional upgrades. Paper OTuH4, “World's First 40 Gbps Overlay on a Field-Deployed, 10 Gbps, Mixed-Fiber, 1200 km, Ultra Long-Haul System.” - Attend this session on Tuesday, March 8 at 2:45 p.m. , Room 304A-B
Optically Transmitted Movies Coming to a Theater Near You?
Researchers will demonstrate that distributing movie-theater-quality digital motion pictures to movie theaters is now technologically feasible over emerging high-speed optical networks . For example, using the Internet2 network, researchers transmitted super-high-definition digital motion picture streams in real time between Chicago and Los Angeles at a speed of 300 Mbps (million bits per second). Paper OFP4, “Recent Progress of Cinema over Optical Networks.” - Attend this session on Friday, March 11 at 11:30 a.m., Room 304A-B
OFC/NFOEC 2005 PR Contacts
Advancing the Science and Technology of Light
