AI looms large at OFC

Light Reading's Phil Harvey and Kelsey Ziser examine how the optical industry is working toward building more efficient networks inside and outside data centers and why AI dominated conversations at this year's OFC event.

Kelsey Ziser, Phil Harvey

March 29, 2024

At a Glance

How the optical industry is addressing AI challenges inside and outside the data center (00:43)
Managing power-hungry data centers (02:12)
Nokia demos AI application within WaveSuite to automate network troubleshooting tickets (03:19)

As demand for AI applications increases, the optical industry is charged with supporting demands for higher bandwidth while reducing power consumption in the data center.

Light Reading's Phil Harvey and Kelsey Ziser examine how the optical industry is working toward building more efficient networks inside and outside data centers and why AI dominated conversations at this year's OFC event. They also discuss AI, optical networking and quantum security demos by Nokia, Ciena and the OIF Forum.

Click on the caption button for a lightly edited transcript.

Here are a few topics we covered:

How the optical industry is addressing AI challenges inside and outside the data center (00:43)
Managing power-hungry data centers (02:12)
Nokia demos AI application within WaveSuite to automate network troubleshooting tickets (03:19)
Ciena and Nokia demonstrate quantum security features (05:25)

Read more about:

About the Author(s)

Kelsey Ziser

Kelsey Ziser

Senior Editor, Light Reading

Kelsey is a senior editor at Light Reading, co-host of the Light Reading podcast, and host of the "What's the story?" podcast.

Her interest in the telecom world started with a PR position at Connect2 Communications, which led to a communications role at the FREEDM Systems Center, a smart grid research lab at N.C. State University. There, she orchestrated their webinar program across college campuses and covered research projects such as the center's smart solid-state transformer.

Kelsey enjoys reading four (or 12) books at once, watching movies about space travel, crafting and (hoarding) houseplants.

Kelsey is based in Raleigh, N.C.

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Phil Harvey

Phil Harvey

Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading

Phil Harvey has been a Light Reading writer and editor for more than 18 years combined. He began his second tour as the site's chief editor in April 2020.

His interest in speed and scale means he often covers optical networking and the foundational technologies powering the modern Internet.

Harvey covered networking, Internet infrastructure and dot-com mania in the late 90s for Silicon Valley magazines like UPSIDE and Red Herring before joining Light Reading (for the first time) in late 2000.

After moving to the Republic of Texas, Harvey spent eight years as a contributing tech writer for D CEO magazine, producing columns about tech advances in everything from supercomputing to cellphone recycling.

Harvey is an avid photographer and camera collector – if you accept that compulsive shopping and "collecting" are the same.

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