Abstract: In 1997, Bran Ferren addressed OFC, providing a series of industry predictions resulting in one of the most refreshing, realistic and accurate Plenary Sessions in OFC’s history. In this year’s OFC/NFOEC Plenary Session, Ferren provides a fresh look at our industry, including drivers for applications as well as the globalization and commodization of the communications industry.
Bran Ferren speaks from unique experience on the art and science of the imagination, and how to organize for innovation. He is a dynamic and inspiring speaker with unparalleled knowledge and insight into the ways invention and innovation, creativity and technology interact for business success. Ferren fills his presentations with ideas gleaned from his vision of design and technology's future, and he offers concrete ways to redesign innovation processes that come from his experience as one of our finest innovation practitioners.
Equal parts artist/ designer and scientist/engineer, he has a distinguished career of contribution to business and product development, film and entertainment, aerospace and other sciences, winning many awards, including three Academy Awards for technical achievement. He is the co-founder, Co-Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Applied Minds, a company that provides advanced technology, creative design, and consulting services to a variety of clients, including The Walt Disney Company, NASA and GM. Before founding Applied Minds, Ferren held various leadership positions, including president, at Walt Disney Imagineering, a resource for new technology invention and creative input for the entire company.
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Abstract: Hurricane Katrina presented BellSouth with an unprecedented challenge in New Orleans as the levee system failed and approximately 80% of the city flooded. Restoration of the metro network provided new perspectives on opportunities for advanced technologies. Upcoming changes in video communications and entertainment services may provide an unprecedented challenge for existing networks, as consumer demands shift from linear programs to an explosion of content delivered wherever and whenever the customer wants it. Meeting these challenges will require advances in the costs, capabilities, and management of metro access and core networks.
Henry J. "Hank" Kafka has over 20 years of experience in telecommunications. He started his career in the equipment provider part of the industry, working for Bell Labs on projects involving voice, data, and multimedia communications systems and applications. He then moved to become a large business customer of communications services and products, working for Johnson Controls in the IT organization, Having been both a supplier to BellSouth and a customer of BellSouth, Kafka joined BellSouth's Science and Technology organization in 1997. He has been working towards the transformation of BellSouth's network to a converged data-centric architecture, setting directions for the introduction of hardware, software, and service technologies such as xDSL, fiber to the premises, optical networking, metro ethernet, MPLS, network-based VPNs, wireless broadband access, packet voice, video, wireless/wireline integrated services, and home networking.
Kafka has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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Abstract: 2006 is the year multimedia services begin transforming our optical networks. IMS and IPTV place demands on long haul, metropolitan and distribution networks that spur the advance of ROADM, long haul and PON technologies. In this talk I will touch upon these technologies, and how they enable the next generation of multimedia services.
Keith Cambron is Sr. Vice President of AT&T Labs, AT&T's applied research and development subsidiary. He has a broad range of knowledge in telecommunications networks, technology and design, and experience ranging from circuit board and software design to the implementation of large public networks. His expertise extends to the areas of switching, call processing, line and trunk signaling, SS7, VF and RF transmission, system testing, Telco operations and traffic engineering, network reliability and performance analysis. Before the recent merger with AT&T, Cambron served as the President & CEO of SBC Laboratories, Inc. This role enabled him to bridge the innovation in the labs to bottom-line results for SBC companies.
Cambron has been profiled in Telephony and America's Network, and was published in the Proceedings of the IEEE Community Network Conference of 1992 and 1995. He taught Object Oriented Design at Golden Gate University in San Francisco and is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He received his B.S.E.E. from the University of Missouri, M.S. in Systems Management from the University of Southern California, and a Microsoft Windows Programming Certification from the University of California at Berkeley. Cambron is a retired Commander in the United States Naval Reserve.
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