Optical Communications Conference (2026 OFC): Telecom Conference Transforms into AI Conference, Focus on "How to Pack Higher Density Fiber Optics into Smaller Spaces"

The annual Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC) is undergoing a transformation. Once a top optical event centered on the telecommunications industry, it has now shifted entirely toward AI infrastructure.

This year’s conference was held this week in Los Angeles, with giants like Corning, Cisco, Arista, Nokia, and Ciena showcasing numerous new products. The focus was heavily on one question: How to pack higher-density fiber optics into smaller physical spaces to meet the bandwidth and low latency demands of AI data centers.

From booth layouts to product launches, AI’s influence is everywhere. Brian Rhoney, Corning’s Data Center Market Development Manager, said, In the past, the main products displayed at the conference were front-end networks—connecting data centers and long-haul internet.

But now, back-end networks—interconnecting machines within data centers—have become equally important, or even more so, Rhoney said:

This year, it seems everything has an AI story.

An analyst attending the event was even more direct at a media roundtable:

This has shifted from a telecom show to an AI show.

Density is king: how fiber “squeezes” into smaller spaces

At this conference, “more” is the recurring theme—more bandwidth, higher density, smaller size.

Corning displayed side-by-side traditional fiber cables housed in plastic tubes and their new micro-cables (eliminating the plastic tube to save space). Rhoney explained:

Circular structures have low stacking efficiency, and in long-distance markets, duct space is limited. Therefore, packing as many fibers as possible into limited space is crucial.

Corning also highlighted its multi-core fiber technology, which integrates four optical cores into a single fiber instead of the traditional single-core design, enabling a leap in bandwidth.

Additionally, within data centers, Corning showcased high-density fiber cabling solutions for connecting servers and switch racks.

On the switch side, Arista introduced a new eXtra-dense Pluggable Optics (XPO) transceiver, a new type of pluggable optical module planned for mass production in 2027.

Arista claims that compared to the widely used OSFP modules, XPO can quadruple rack bandwidth, reduce switch rack footprint by 75%, and lower data center power, cooling, and piping costs—potentially saving billions in AI factory construction.

The multi-source agreement (MSA) supporting this solution has been endorsed by over 40 members and will be officially announced at this conference.

Power consumption and architecture: dual breakthroughs in next-gen optical networks

Reducing power consumption was another major theme at this conference, with many vendors highlighting significant energy savings.

Ciena showcased a new Reconfigurable Line System (RLS) equipped with Hyper-Rail technology.

This technology abandons traditional wavelength multiplexing in favor of “fully-filled fibers” transmission, achieving up to 32 times the density between clusters and data centers, while reducing power consumption per rack by up to 75%.

Ciena said this technology is mainly aimed at large-scale cloud providers’ training networks, which are connecting multiple sites into distributed networks to support ever-growing AI models.

Additionally, Ciena demonstrated a new Vesta Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) pluggable connector, which can directly connect to switch ASICs, increasing link rates while reducing power consumption.

Cisco launched the Open Transport 3000 series, claiming it can cut power use by 75% and improve rack space utilization by 80%.

This system packs multiple pairs of optical fibers into a single line card, supporting extension from local switches to other racks and data centers, helping telecom operators and enterprises consolidate multi-site resources to handle increasingly large AI models with parallel distributed architectures.

Cisco also announced an 800Gb/s capacity upgrade for the NCS 1014 transponder and demonstrated coherent pluggable optical modules based on Acacia technology.

Nokia released a “building block” architecture based on new DSPs and optical front-end components, including coherent pluggable transceivers supporting long-distance and data center interconnects, short-range high-bandwidth optical connectors for enterprise and campus deployments, and dual-sided pluggable optical modules compatible with CPO, near-package optics (NPO), and linearly pluggable optics (LPO) switches.

Nokia also launched Aurelis, a passive optical network (PON) out-of-band management system, claiming it can reduce the number of switches needed by 90% and cut energy consumption by 50%.

Hollow fiber: from labs to large-scale deployment

Hollow-core fiber is one of the hottest frontier topics discussed at this conference.

Unlike traditional fibers where light propagates through solid glass, hollow-core fiber allows light to travel through an air-filled core, significantly reducing latency. Rhoney from Corning said:

In the past, interconnecting data centers was limited by distance, but now longer connections are possible.

He acknowledged that hollow-core fiber isn’t new technology, but after years of continuous improvement, “it’s now practical, and the market around hollow-core fiber is very active.”

Corning has partnered with Microsoft since September 2025 to provide manufacturing services for hollow-core fiber. Microsoft has also signed agreements with Corning and Heraeus Covantics to build a “transnational supply chain” to expand the global deployment of next-generation fibers.

Component-level advances: CPO and high-speed transceivers accelerate deployment

In the optical component sector, Coherent, Lumentum, and Marvell announced multiple new developments during the conference.

Coherent released several co-packaged optical technologies, including a 6.4T slot-based CPO based on silicon photonics paired with its self-developed high-power InP continuous-wave laser modules; multi-mode slot-based CPO based on high-speed VCSELs; and 400G InP modulators running on silicon. Coherent’s stock rose about 1% midday.

Lumentum showcased various products aimed at AI and cloud data centers, including a prototype of a 1.6T DR4 OSFP pluggable transceiver using four 400G differential EML lasers, as well as 800mW ultra-high-power lasers and 16-channel DWDM ultra-high-power lasers.

Rafik Ward, Lumentum’s Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, said:

Our product portfolio is designed to support the scale, speed, and efficiency needed for next-generation AI and cloud data center infrastructure.

Lumentum’s stock rose about 4% that day.

Marvell and Lumentum jointly demonstrated the Aquila 1.6T coherent lite DSP, Ara 1.6T PAM4 optical DSP, and interoperability of COLORZ® 800 ZR/ZR+ DCI modules with Lumentum’s R300 optical switch platform.

Xi Wang, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Marvell’s Connectivity Business, said:

This joint solution demonstrates how next-generation AI networks can achieve breakthrough improvements in performance, energy efficiency, and architectural flexibility.

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