Executive Forum at OFC 2025

Optica's Executive Forum is a 1-day program featuring a keynote session, panel presentations, CEO Panel, a business fireside chat, and many in-person networking opportunities.

Session 1: Next-Generation Network Infrastructure and Architecture

In this panel, hyperscalers and network operators, will dissect the technical impact of artificial intelligence and decentralization on the current network loads and future of communication networks. What are the economical drivers for network operators and how are those translated into technical demands into physical network layer and infrastructure? What standards and QC requirements are the hyperscalers demanding from their supplier to meet?

Session 2: Status of Photonic-enabled Modules 

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.

Session 3: The Evolution from Copper to Optical - Where is the line?

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.

Session 4: CEO Panel

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.

Session 5: Photonic Interconnects in AI Clusters

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?

Session 6: Business Fireside Chat

In the business fireside chat Aaron Werley of Zayo joins Tim Doiron to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing network service providers in an era of AI and massive data center expansion. How do network operators stay ahead of growing fiber capacity demands and service evolutions, and what are the technologies, tools and processes needed to do so?  How are customer expectations changing and how is Zayo changing to meet and exceed those expectations?  We’ll cover this and more in the business fireside chat as we wrap up the day.