NSLab at OFC 2026: SEASON Project Final Demonstrations Accepted

Los Angeles, CA – The Networks and Services Lab (NSLab) at the University of L'Aquila announces its central contribution to the final demonstration papers developed within the European SEASON project, all of which have been accepted for publication and presentation at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) 2026, to be held in Los Angeles in March 2026. OFC is widely regarded as the world’s most prestigious international conference in optical communications and networking.

Within the SEASON project, NSLab has been actively involved in the experimental validation of advanced architectures and orchestration mechanisms targeting sustainable, flexible, and energy-efficient optical and access networks. The accepted demonstrations rely on large-scale field trials and integrated testbeds where heterogeneous optical technologies are coordinated through unified control and management frameworks, also leveraging the expertise and facilities of FIBERS, the CNIT National Laboratory for Advanced Optical Fibers and Photonics.

Accepted OFC 2026 Demonstrations

End-to-End Orchestration across Multi-Core Fiber Infrastructure

This demonstration presents the world’s first field trial of an energy-aware converged architecture integrating spatial Passive Optical Networks (PON), metro networks, and 5G O-RAN. The solution enables dynamic end-to-end resource orchestration to support immersive AR/VR services with edge offloading, while reducing overall power consumption across the infrastructure.

Dynamic Control of Multi-Technology Optical Access Networks with PON and Coherent P2MP

This work demonstrates a unified, SDN-orchestrated access and aggregation network where legacy PON systems and coherent point-to-multipoint (P2MP) optical technologies coexist on the same physical infrastructure. The demonstration highlights flexible, on-demand service provisioning across heterogeneous optical systems, supporting smooth technological evolution and efficient network operation.

These results mark an important milestone for the SEASON project and further strengthen the role of NSLab in advancing sustainable, programmable, and future-proof optical networking solutions through experimental research and real-world validation.