Review of OFC 2021: The future of optical networks and communications. Virtual conference 6–10 June 2021

ABSTRACT

This is a detailed review of the latest developments presented at the last OFC 2921 virtual conference. The review covers: Game-Changing developments, specifically Hollow Core Fibers (HCF), Neural Networks (NN) Applications, and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD); and Incremental developments, in particular, Sensors and Data Centers, High-Speed Coherent Optics Transmission, with the latter’s emphasis on Optical Switching.

KEYWORDS:

• Hollow core fibers – neural networks – quantum key distribution – high speed coherent transmission – sensors – optical switching

Acknowledgments

We end this review by wishing our readers a healthy, pandemic-free future, and hope that OFC 2022 will be an in-person meeting.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Most symmetric cryptographic algorithms are already quantum-safe. Several new quantum-safe, public-key algorithms are under study. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-quantum_cryptography]

² Authentication is a difficult problem in information security. Unfortunately, a tutorial on authentication is beyond the scope of this review.

³ Since some photons will be lost in transmission or detection, any time slots with no detection are ignored.

⁴ Distillation is a mathematical procedure that extracts a shorter unconditionally secure key from the original key by using the QBER to determine how much Eve knows about the original key.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Henri Hodara

Henri Hodara, PhD, is an entrepreneur and business executive with degrees from MIT, Stanford and Illinois Institute of Technology. He is the founder of several successful high-tech enterprises, more specifically Tetra Tech and L-3 PHOTONICS. He has served on the Board of Directors of public companies, Tetra Tech and The Learning Tree International. He is President of SymbiOptix, a high tech and management consulting company he founded in 2011. Hodara has published extensively in the peer review journal, IEEE, hold several patents, and served for 11 years as the US Electro-Optics representative to the NATO/AGARD Electromagnetic Propagation Panel.

Patrick Mock

Patrick Mock is an experimental physicist with extensive experience in electro-optics. He received his PhD in experimental astrophysics from MIT in 1993, where he developed UV and x-ray CCD cameras. While on research staff at the University of California at Irvine, he developed the fiber optic calibration system a high-energy neutrino detector at the South Pole, and he received the Antarctic Service Medal from the National Science Foundation in 1994. Since 1998 he has been an industrial physicist developing commercial electro-optics instruments for medical, communications, and imaging applications.

Charles Slemon

Charles Slemon is a retired entrepreneur and business executive with degrees in physics from Brown and Cornell. He was the founder and president of Volution Incorporated. He has conducted pioneering work in fiber optics, undersea laser systems, photonic and electro-chemical sensing, automated machine vision inspection, monitor/control networks, and data fusion. Many of these applications were the first to successfully deploy standard or new AI techniques into real work situations, including expert systems, fuzzy logic, neural networks, and other proprietary methods. His career has included work in the commercial, industrial, and government markets. He has given lectures, published technical articles, has several patents, and was the principal subject of articles in multiple publications including the New York Times.