2023 Lightwave Innovation Reviews Honorees

Feb. 7, 2023
Our 10th annual Lightwave Innovation Reviews saw technology developers submit products introduced or enhanced since March 2022 in various technology categories for review by our independent panel of judges. Congrats to the following honorees!
Lir Award2023 C
Lir Award2023 C
Lir Award2023 C
Lir Award2023 C
Lir Award2023 C

Our 10th annual Lightwave Innovation Reviews saw technology developers submit products introduced or enhanced since March 2022 in various technology categories for review by our independent panel of judges. In some cases, that brought entries for products that will make their debuts at OFC 2023 this March.

Lightwave Editorial Director Stephen Hardy, in his role as Award Program Manager, assigned each entry to be reviewed by at least three judges knowledgeable in the relevant technology or application. As was the case in previous years, they rated each entry on the following scale:

0-1.5: Not a particularly useful product

2.0-2.5: Okay, but perhaps a commodity product

3.0-3.5: Solid product, usually with at least one attribute that sets it apart from commodity products

4.0-4.5: Excellent product with technical features and performance that provide clear and substantial benefits

5.0: Superb product that demonstrates breakthrough performance and/or innovation.

This year’s panel included:

  • Brandon Collings, CTO, optical communications, CCOP, Lumentum
  • Benjamin Dillard, program manager – special projects, Concert Technologies
  • Frank Effenberger, fellow, optical transport and access standards, Futurewei Technologies
  • Jorg-Peter Elbers, SVP, advanced technology, standards and IPR, ADVA Optical Networking
  • Mike Frankel, Ciena fellow, Ciena
  • Andrew Frapiccini, project manager, Concert Technologies
  • Lisa Huff, principal analyst, optical components, OVUM
  • Tom Issenhuth, principal at Issenhuth Consulting
  • Peter Jones, principal engineer, Cisco
  • Vladimir Kozlov, founder and CEO, LightCounting
  • Patrick McLaughlin, editor in chief, Cabling Installation & Maintenance
  • Rick Talbot, principal analyst - intelligent network transport, ACG Research
  • Jim Theodoras, vice president of R&D, HG Genuine USA.
  • Matt Traverso, principal engineer, Cisco
  • Dr. Tiejun J. (TJ) Xia, distinguished member of technical staff, Verizon

And, as has been tradition, we honor the following entries for achieving a score of at least 3.5 on that 1 to 5 scale. Congratulations to all of the companies listed below – and be sure to look for these companies at OFC 2023 to find out more.

Carrier Fiber, Cable, Enclosures, and Accessories

Arrayed Fiberoptics Corp.: MJC Fiber Connector (initially loose MPO)

Go!Foton: M-CHT: Midspan Clamshell Hardened Terminal

ZTE Corp.: ZTE Fiber Fingerprint Solution

Communications Semiconductors and Electrical ICs

Microchip Technology: META-DX2+ 1.6T Ethernet PHY with Security and Aggregation

Data Center Fiber, Cable, Enclosures and Accessories

CommScope, Inc.: Propel

Data Center Interconnect Platforms

Corning Optical Communications: EDGE™ Rapid Connect™ Solutions

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.: Data Center Interconnect Platforms (DC908)

Jabil: QSFP-DD Dual Pluggable EDFA

Marvell: Alaska® A PAM4 DSP Family for Active Electrical Cables

Marvell: Spica™ Gen2 800G PAM4 Electro-Optics Platform

Field Test Equipment

AFL: FlexReporter Software Suite

AFL: FOCIS Lightning®2 Multi-Fiber Optic Connector Inspection System

Anritsu Company: Network Master Pro MT1040A

EXFO: EXFO’s FTBx-88480 Compact, Dual-Port 400G Test Solution

EXFO: PXM/LXM MPO OLTS

Spirent Communications: Spirent A1 400G Appliance

VeEX Inc.: FX41xT Selective PON Power Meter for GPON and XGS-PON

VeEX Inc.: Next Gen FX120 PON Analyzer & Multi-Gig Service QoE Test Set

VIAVI Solutions: FTH-9000 Adaptive Fiber Test Head

VIAVI Solutions: ONMSi Build Module & Lit-Fiber Ready FTH-5000 OTDR Shelf

VIAVI Solutions: SmartPocket V2 OLP-39 TruePON Testers

FTTx Systems

Calix: Calix Intelligent EDGE XG801 Line Card

Ciena: 3984

Ciena: 3985

DZS: DZS Velocity V6 System

Harmonic: CableOS® FTTx Solution

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.: Huawei FTTR

ZTE Corp.: ZTE Light POL Solution

Lab/Production Test Equipment

Anritsu Company: Signal Quality Analyzer-R MP1900A

Coherent: WaveMaker 4000A Optical Spectral Synthesizer

EXFO: Edge-Coupling PIC Automated Solution

M2 Optics Inc.: Fiber Lab MSP

MultiLane Inc.: Active Loopback

Spirent Communications: Spirent B2 800G Native OSFP and QSFP-DD Test Platform

Xena Networks: Freya 800G Ethernet TGA test module

Xena Networks: Freya AN/LT Test Appliance

Optical Components

Albis Optoelectronics: PQS40A-L

Auxora Inc.: 400-GHz Channel Spacing nWDM Filter Block

Coherent: The Coherent 200-Gbps Electro-Absorption Modulated Laser

Lumentum: 200G PAM4 Externally Modulated Lasers (EMLs)

Senko Advanced Components Inc.: Metallic PIC Connector

Optical Subsystems

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.: Huawei Digital QuickODN Solution (DQ ODN Solution)

Infinera: Infinera ICTR64 TROSA

Optical Transceivers and Transponders

ADVA: AccessWave25

Ciena: WaveLogic 5 Nano 100G – 400G Universal QSFP-DD

Coherent: Coherent 100G ZR QSFP28-DCO

FIBERSTAMP TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.: 50G eCPRI SFP56 DWDM 80 km

Infinera: XR Optics

InnoLight Technology: 800G OSFP DR8+ Optical Transceiver

QXP Technologies Inc.: 50-Gbps Single Lambda Self Tuning BiDi Optical Transceiver

SiFotonics Technologies Co., Ltd.: 8x100G-ER1-nWDM QSFP28 Optical Transceivers

Vitex LLC: 100G Parallel Four-lane BiDi QSFP28

Optical Transport Systems

DZS: DZS Saber-4400

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.: OptiX OSN 9800 M24

Infinera: Infinera GX Series

Ribbon: IP Wave OT9408 Compact Modular Transport System

SM Optics: Lightmode Product Family

ZTE Corp.: ZTE’s Large-Capacity 400G ULH Transport System

SDN/NFV Technology

DZS: DZS sdNOS Embedded Software Platform