In this episode, we talked to two experts who are driving innovation and collaboration in the optical networking industry from the Optical Internetworking Forum:

Nathan Tracy, president of OIF

and

Jeff Hutchins, OIF Secretary/Treasurer & Physical and Link Layer (PLL) Working Group Energy Efficient Interfaces (EEI) Vice Chair (Ranovus)

We talked about OIF's activities during the OFC 2025 tradeshow and its efforts to drive new network collaboration and interoperability among a diverse group of industry players, the AI boom and network management platforms like CMIS.

About the Podcast In the Lightwave+BTR Broadband Pulse podcast, we address the key issues affecting the optical and broadband industry segments. Join us every week for insights from industry leaders on these topics. Visit our website at www.lightwave.com and click on our podcast site at https://broadbandpulse.podbean.com/.

In this latest episode of the Broadband Pulse podcast, we speak with Terry Thorn, Vice President of Commercial Operations for Ayar Labs.

Ayar has been developing new optical I/O systems to accommodate new AI models, which are expected to grow exponentially. Optical I/O technology can enhance link density within and across nodes. Optical I/O enables nodes to connect at scale, unlike traditional interconnects, functioning as a single, giant GPU.

The company has been getting the attention of key investors, including Advent Global Opportunities, AMD, Intel Capital, Light Street Capital and NVIDIA.

In March, the company unveiled its Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express™ (UCIe™), an optical interconnect chiplet to maximize AI infrastructure performance and efficiency while reducing latency and power consumption.

During this podcast, we discussed how Ayar sees the next-gen optical I/O technologies space shaping up this year, funding, company developments, and the role of co-packaged optics.

About the Podcast In the Lightwave+BTR Broadband Pulse podcast, we address the key issues affecting the optical and broadband industry segments. Join us every week for insights from industry leaders on these topics. Visit our website at www.lightwave.com and click on our podcast site at https://broadbandpulse.podbean.com/.

Broadband Pulse is tracking new broadband build-out developments in this new weekly news roundup series.

We're tracking new builds from various providers, including Comcast, Fidium, Glo Fiber, Kinetic, Lyte Fiber, Metronet, Right Fiber and Surf Internet..

You can also read about these deployments in Lightwave+BTR's weekly Building Broadband feature on our website, www.lighwaveonline.com.