Panel II: Market Trend for Passive Optical Networks

Tuesday, March 6, 3-5pm

Moderator:

Alexis Black Bjorlin, Ph.D., has served  President  of Source Photonics since July 2007, and has been on the Board of Directors since 2010. From February 2005 through July 2007, she served as the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer. From March 2003 through February 2005, Dr. Black Bjorlin served as the Vice President, Product Line Management and Corporate Marketing. From June 2002 through February, 2003, she was Director of Product Management for MRV. Prior to this, she served as Chief Optical Architect for Zaffire, Inc, a DWDM Metropolitan Networks company, which was acquired by Centerpoint Broadband Technologies in October 2001. Dr. Black Bjorlin earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Optoelectronics from University of California, Santa Barbara.

Panel Description:

The Passive Optical Networking Market Watch session will cover the dynamics of global PON deployments and future technology and market trends through the view of carriers, networking equipment manufacturers, optical component providers, and integrated circuit developers.

Speakers:

The Splintering of the Traditional PON Deployment Model: An Equipment Vendor Viewpoint
Ed Harstead, Chief Technology Officer, Wireline Division, Alcatel-Lucent, USA
The traditional PON deployment of FTTHome from the local CO by a lone incumbent operator has begun to splinter.   Residential bandwidth demands, regulatory pressures towards open access, operator economics driving CO consolidation, and new PON applications (e.g. FTTBusiness/FTTBuilding/FTTCellsite) are driving more functionality into PON equipment and more versatility from PON equipment vendors.  The relative strengths of these drivers have a high regional variability which must be recognized.  These new deployment challenges, how current PON technologies can meet them, how they might be driving next generation PON technologies, and progress in next generation PON standards, will be addressed.

Ed Harstead joined Bell Laboratories in 1983, and his current role at Alcatel-Lucent is Lead Technologist for the Chief Technology Office of the Wireline Division. During the 2000s, Ed was a an R&D-facing and customer-facing Senior Product Line Manager for both Optical and Broadband Access products. In the 1990s, as a systems engineer and systems engineering manager, Ed led R&D efforts in first generation BPON and WDM PON technologies, while taking the lead role for Lucent in the FSAN standardization forum.  He has been awarded four patents, has published over a dozen technical papers, authored the chapter on Optical Access Networks in Optical Fiber Telecommunications IV, and reviews submissions to IEEE on the subject of WDM PON.  Ed received the MS Mechanical Engineering and MS Electrical Engineering degrees from Columbia University, New York City, in 1983 and 1987 respectively.

Advances in FTTx Architectures…An Infrastructure Perspective
Atikem Haile-Mariam, Vice President of Marketing, Opterna, USA
Recent, large-scale deployment of FTTx networks to homes and Multi-Dwelling Units, (MDUs), in cities have highlighted the importance of having cost effective architectures and networks. While much attention is often given to advances in electronics/”active” devices that power these networks, the overwhelming cost drivers for FTTx networks are actually related to the infrastructure/“passive” portion of the network. This “passive” portion is typically referred to as the network’s “Fiber Management System”, (“FMS”), and comprises of fiber pedestals, hubs, aerial enclosures, splitters, connectors and associated deployment costs. This talk will focus on advances in FMS, and how these advances have enabled leading carriers to radically reduce the cost to “pass” and “connect” subscribers.

Atikem is the VP of Marketing at Opterna with responsibilities for managing opto-electronic opportunities. From 2003 to 2008, Atikem was a product manager at Finisar with responsibilities for xWDM transceivers. In 2003, Atikem worked with the IFC where he developed an IT services investment blueprint for South East Asia, and led negotiations on several investments. Prior to IFC, Atikem co-founded Ignis Inc., and was also a member of Intel Capital’s investment team. While at Intel, he completed investments and was a portfolio-company-board-observer. From 1992 to 1998, Atikem held positions at Corning Inc. including marketing manager of optical fibers for access markets. While at Corning, Atikem was also a member of the IEEE 802.3 committee. Atikem has BS degrees in History and Physics from Knox College, a BS in Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and an MBA from the Darden School at University of Virginia.

WDM PON an Access Solution Today?
Michael Gruhlke, Business Development Manager, Ericsson, USA
This presentation will provide an overview of WDM-PON, highlighting its key attributes and values.  The solution shows the coexistence to today’s traditional TDM-based PON systems and illustrates how WDM-PON addresses the challenges faced by the traditional PON systems. Applications where high and symmetrical bandwidth is required in the Enterprise and backhaul market can be addressed through WDM PON by using the same outside plant infrastructure, side by side to a GPON access network.

Michael Gruhlke is the Business Development Manager for Ericsson representing the WDMPON access platform from LG-Ericsson. For the past five years, Michael has been promoting access solutions within China, India, Russia and North America. Michael has 20+ years of communications experience ranging from microwave, satellite, optical transport and access.

Building Blocks for Next Generation PON
Tim Jenks, Chairman & CEO, NeoPhotonics Corporation, USA
Abstract – The FTTx market is defying the economic slowdown and keeps growing at double digit rates.  Both GPON and GEPON have become main stream network architectures and 10G PON is starting to enter early volume deployments.  Geographically, China has passed Japan as the as the region with the most homes connected, but all regions around the globe are experiencing significant growth, as national broadband strategies accelerate. 

This talk will provide an update on the current market status from an FTTx module provider perspective, and include an overview of trends in the areas of embedded network monitoring and the application of PIC technology in access networks.  The talk will conclude with an outlook on what is coming beyond the current standards of 10G in terms of network architecture and enabling technologies.

Tim Jenks has been CEO of Neo Photonics (NYSE: NPTN) since joining the company as a startup in 1998. He has overseen the company’s development since that time, including their growth in China and the development of their expanding PON business.  Mr. Jenks was previously Vice President and General Manager at Raychem Corporation, a materials and engineering company acquired by Tyco Electronics, where he served in general management and functional positions in the US and Europe. Mr. Jenks is a former naval officer, and holds an MBA from Stanford University, a MS from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BS from the U.S. Naval Academy.


Market Trends and Technology Evolution of the PON Modules
David Li, Chief Techology Officer, Ligent Photonics, USA

With the growth of broadband access demands, the number of FTTX users has been increasing all over the world and the PON system has been widely deployed as a cost effective optical network. This presentation will review the market trends of the optical modules in the PON system and the technologies on both the optical and electrical components for the EPON, GPON, and 10G-PON applications. Looking forward, the new features in next generation PON appears to be challenging in terms of power consumption, packaging size and cost-effectiveness.  The challenges in the new optical components and electronics for the NG PON will also be discussed. 

David Li is the Chief Technology Officer of Ligent Photonics (USA) and Vice President in Hisense Broadband Multimedia Technologies. Prior to join Hisense-Ligent in 2002, he held variety positions as associate professor, principal design engineer, technical supervisor, and director in UESTC, CUHK, Texas Center for Superconductivity, Epsilon Lambda Electronics, and Molex. He has been involved in the development and manufacturing of the high-speed electrical, optical modules and subsystems for more than 20 years. David has been participating the IEEE802.3ae/ IEEE802.3ah/ IEEE802.3av and FSAN meetings actively. Following the standard activities, he lead the R&D team developed the innovative EPON ONU/OLT with accurate monitoring functions, GPON ONU/OLT modules, 10G-EPON, NG-PON1, and WDM-PON modules, which have been widely deployed around the world. David received the BS degree from Shandong University and the MS degree from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He earned the Doctor of Engineering degree from University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and the Ph.D. degree from University of Houston.