Explore the highlights of CESNET's SDN-driven, precise time distribution service deployed over a single fiber network. The demonstration is built with open-source software such as Ansible, Grafana, and NetBox for real-time telemetry and SDN control. This demonstration will use commercial White Rabbit devices and CESNET's open-hardware CzechLight BiDi bidirectional optical amplifiers at the hardware level. It illustrates how CESNET's advanced optical infrastructure seamlessly manages time distribution services across a national network using unified management, monitoring, and automation tools. This scalable approach supports innovative network services for research and education in the Czech Republic.

AI is driving not only server technology, but everything that connects to the server inside and between data centers. Data center networks are transitioning quickly to 400G and 800G now to support AI applications. To support these networks, optical modules are moving quickly to 800G, and 1.6T adoptions are right around the corner. This panel will discuss technologies used both inside the data center as well as new coherent technologies being developed for connecting data centers.

As AI drives rapid evolution in system architectures, connectivity is one of the major challenges in building larger, more efficient compute clusters. Solutions that enable both scale up and scale out are critical to achieving the goal of 1 million xpu clusters. Within connectivity, one of the most important questions to be answered is how far copper can scale and where the transition to optical needs to happen. While it was once assumed that copper would be unable to scale beyond 100g/lane, the industry has come up with creative solutions to extend the life of copper. At the same time the debate continues on when the inevitable transition to optical happens and what the technologies of choice will be. To discuss this topic we have assembled a group of industry leaders that address a broad range of connectivity solutions across copper and optics.

The CEO Panel explores firsthand the diverse perspectives these accomplished CEOs from public companies in the optical communication market as they discuss how they've navigated their organizations through change and uncertainty. Learn about what are the challenges and opportunities ahead and what keeps them awake at night.

Optical engines are a cornerstone in the development of robust and scalable AI infrastructure for high-performance computing applications. What are available technologies to facilitate high-speed communication and data exchange among the distributed nodes within an AI cluster? How are these engines addressing the substantial data volumes inherent in AI computations and mitigating latency?

This session is a unique opportunity as we sit down with the visionary entrepreneur and co-founder of Arista Networks, Andy Bechtolsheim. This exclusive and interactive interview will delve into the latest innovations in networking technology, with a particular focus on Arista's groundbreaking developments in Linear Pluggable Optics. Andy shares his perspectives on the current status of the optical communication business outlook through a dialogue with the audience.