Could optical fiber become a form of storage? Explore a new concept that turns fiber transmission delay into ultra-high-bandwidth temporary memory for AI data centers.

Understand the differences between PC, UPC, and APC fiber connector end-face designs, and why return loss and reflection control are critical in modern optical networks.

An in-depth overview of six upgrade paths for all-optical transport networks, covering spectrum expansion, 400G/800G evolution, fiber technologies, and long-term capacity strategies.

Explore how data center port density evolved from LC to MPO to MMC, and why next-generation networks focus on manageability, system design, and scalability.

Explore how data center infrastructure has evolved since the information age, with fiber optics overtaking copper cabling to support high bandwidth, scalability, and modern network demands.

High-density optical flex modules solve critical CPO, OXC, ROADM, and OCS fiber-management challenges, enabling scalable, low-loss, and AI-ready optical networks.

Enabling Next-Generation Optical Circuit Switches with Fiber Shuffle and Micro-Optic Solutions An Optical Circuit Switch (OCS) is a device that directly routes optical signals without converting them to electrical signals. Unlike traditional switches that handle data packets, an OCS creates a physical, dedicated light path between two points. These are increasingly important in the context of AI scale-up because they offer low latency and high bandwidth, which are crucial for the massive data transfers required for large language models and other

Hollow-core fiber (HCF) presents several compelling advantages over conventional solid-core fibers like G.652.D, including ultra-low latency, high capacity, and reduced attenuation.

Hollow-core fiber (HCF) replaces the glass core of conventional single-mode fiber (SMF) with an air-filled center. In practice HCF is built as a microstructured glass “jacket” surrounding a central air channel. Light is guided not by total internal reflection in glass but by photonic-bandgap or anti-resonant effects in the cladding. Figure 1 shows a common “revolver” anti-resonant design: a central air core with a ring of thin silica tubes. This leaves >99% of the optical mode in air, dramatically reducing interaction with glass. By contrast, an SMF has a solid Ge-doped silica core (∼9 μm diameter) within a lower-index glass cladding. Because the HCF core index (n≈1) is much lower than the cladding, special cladding structures are required to confine light.

An optical cross-connect (OXC) is a network device that switches high‐speed optical signals between fiber inputs and outputs without converting them to electronics. In essence, an OXC uses photonic switching fabric to route wavelength channels from any incoming fiber to any outgoing fiber, typically by demultiplexing each WDM signal into individual wavelengths, directing them through a switch matrix, and then re-multiplexing onto output fibers. Because the signals remain in the optical domain (“transparent” switching), OXCs preserve data‐rate and protocol transparency. Because the signals remain in the optical domain (“transparent” switching), OXCs preserve data‐rate and protocol transparency. This all‐optical routing is controlled electronically (often via an SDN controller) to dynamically allocate bandwidth and restore paths without manual patching.