The Ethernet Alliance at OFC 2022 – The Recap

A Highly Rewarding Return to OFC 2022

We made it!

As I noted in my pre-show blog, it’d been more than two-and-a-half years since the Ethernet Alliance participated in a live, in-person trade show (since ECOC 2019 in Dublin in case you were wondering). Returning to the Optical Fibre Conference (OFC) in San Diego was challenging, yet highly rewarding.

It was no secret that attendance would be less than pre-Covid times; final attendee numbers hovered around 8,000, roughly half of prior show attendance. The show floor had a few open spaces; however, the flurry of activity and high quality of interactions belied the lower headcount. At the Ethernet Alliance booth, it was business as usual with eager attendees, analysts, and technology reporters packing the floor and looking to discuss the latest technology considerations with participating member companies.

Demonstrating Interoperability Across a Wide Range of Ethernet Technologies

The Ethernet Alliance interoperability demonstration’s return to OFC proved to be a compelling draw for all who visited the booth. As has become the tradition – and one of the major attractions of OFC during the past several years – this iteration of the demo featured cutting-edge 400GbE and 800GbE offerings, interworking with legacy speeds. It drew quite the crowd, so it’s funny to think that this interop demo almost didn’t happen.

In addition to the crush of OFC attendees finding their way to the Ethernet Alliance interop demo, our member companies with their own exhibits ushered visitors from their booth to ours. The demo served as a perfect technology showcase, delivering a prime viewing opportunity of a complete build and interoperability solution.

As always, the Ethernet Alliance interop demo spotlighted the latest best-in-class products, services, and solutions for the legacy and high-speed Ethernet market. Notably, seven of the 15 participating member companies represented the Test & Measurement (T&M) community, simultaneously the highest count and largest percentage of T&M member companies the Ethernet Alliance has hosted in its demo. It’s a testament to the importance of the T&M community, as well as a show of its unwavering support for both standards compliance and vendor interoperability.

Ethernet Roadmap Highlights Latest Evolution in Ethernet Technologies

OFC also marked the debut of the latest Ethernet Alliance Ethernet Roadmap. Newly minted for 2022 and representing long hours of dedicated work by our Roadmap Committee, the roadmap addresses technology developments, evolving application spaces, and key trends emerging across the ecosystem. The 2022 Ethernet Roadmap and related graphics are available as a digital download, get your free copy here.

While it was exciting to get back to a traditional trade show, the most rewarding was to be accompanied by so many enthusiastic Ethernet Alliance members whose products, services, and tools deliver on Ethernet’s promise of “you plug it in, and it works” interoperability. After a two-year hiatus, returning to the hectic, hurly-burly world of an in-person trade show took some getting used to. In the end, the demo coalesced beautifully, becoming the embodiment of “all things Ethernet” as only the Ethernet Alliance and its members can produce.

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