Lightwave’s 2026 Innovation Awards early bird deadline is September 31

Lightwave’s 2026 Innovation Awards—a feature celebrating optical and broadband innovations--is on the horizon.

The “early bird” deadline for submissions for the 2026 Lightwave Innovation Reviews is September 31, 2025. The Lightwave Innovation Reviews recognize excellence in products or technologies applicable to optical networks. Information on the Reviews, including how to submit an entry, can be found at the Lightwave Innovation Reviews portal.

As a reminder, the final deadline for submission to the 2025 Lightwave Innovation Reviews is November 29.

Now in its 13th year, the Lightwave Innovation Reviews accept entries describing products introduced or significantly upgraded since OFC 2025 this past March. A panel of judges will evaluate submitted entries for originality, innovation, positive impact on the customer, how well they address a new or existing requirement, and cost-effectiveness. The judges will then rate each entry on a scale of one to five, with five recognizing an entry that brings something unique to optical and broadband communications.

Entries with an average score of at least 3.5 will be honored as Elite Score recipients. Lightwave will reveal details of these Elite Score entries in late February 2025, shortly before OFC 2026.

The innovation awards will recognize innovations in broadband and optical networking during the OFC trade show next March.

For optical, Lightwave plans to announce honorees in the following categories:

·       Carrier Fiber, Cable, Enclosures, and Accessories

·       Communications, Semiconductors and Electrical ICs

·       Data Center Fiber, Cable, Enclosures and Accessories

·       Data Center Interconnect Platforms

·       Field Test Equipment

·       FTTx Systems

·       Lab/Production Test Equipment

·       Optical Components

·       Optical Subsystems

·       Optical Transceivers and Transponders

·       Optical Transport Systems

·       SDN/NFV Technology

On the broadband side, we will continue to judge honorees in the following broadband categories:

·       Active Network Hardware

·       Back Office

·       Cabling and accessories

·       Field Test Instruments

·       FTTH/Optical Access Platforms

·       Monitoring & Analysis

·       Optical Transport/Carrier Ethernet

·       SDN/NFV/Cloud

·       Video Distribution Solutions

·       Wi-Fi Solutions

The judging panel comprises optical communications technology developers, users, and market analysts with years of experience specifying, designing, and evaluating fiber-optic communications technology independent of the Lightwave staff.

Sean Buckley of Lightwave will serve as program manager this year. Questions about the Lightwave Innovation Reviews can be addressed to Sean Buckley at [email protected].