2009 Workshops and Panels

Select workshops below are now available to download in PDF format.

OFC/NFOEC workshops provide opportunities to discuss and debate the latest technologies. Many workshops will be highly interactive, among both the speakers and the audience. The format of each session is determined by the organizers. In the past, many workshops have consisted of a series of short, contributed presentations (5 to 10 minutes) from people involved in the field followed by a panel discussion driven by questions from the audience.

The 2009 conference features workshops and panel discussions in current areas of interest in OFC and NFOEC categories alike. All OFC/NFOEC attendees are encouraged to participate. Workshops will be held on Sunday, March 22, 4:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m., and Monday, March 23, 8:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. The workshops provide an interactive learning environment and are open to all conference registrants.

NEW! Rump Session

Tuesday, March 24, 7:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m.
Participate in this interactive, audience discussion on the challenges of the continuing demand for more capacity.

OFC/NFOEC Workshops

Sunday, March 22, 4:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.

Category C. Optical Devices for Switching, Filtering and Signal Compensation

OSuE, Can Integrated Photonics Enable Optical Interconnection Networks in Advanced Computing and Network Systems? Yurii Vlasov¹, Keren Bergman², Ashok Krishnamoorthy³; ¹IBM, TJ Watson Res. Ctr., USA, ²Columbia Univ., USA, ³Sun Microsystems Inc., USA. With computer systems performance soon to approach Exaflop/s a dramatic increase in communications bandwidth for shuttling ExaBytes/s of data across the system, between the racks, chips and cores is becoming a major challenge. Optical interconnects already started to penetrate the computing communications infrastructure and are destined to make further inroads at all levels. Within just a few years it is expected that the number of optical links in a single computer system will become comparable with the total number of optical telecommunications links installed all over the world. The workshop will explore how recent advances in nanoscale silicon photonic technologies might be exploited for developing optical interconnection networks that address the critical bandwidth and power challenges presented across several levels of the computing system interconnect.

Questions:
(Systems Perspective)

  • What are the major interconnect-centric challenges to future Exascale computer systems?
  • What is your vision for how/when optical interconnects may be employed at various levels (system, racks, boards, on-chip)? what are the corresponding relevant benchmarks (Tbp/s, mW/Gbps, $/Gbps)?
  • Are there any architectural or system/applications performance benefits to using optics? what critical challenges must be addressed? how would optical technologies be used in complement to electronics?

(Device Technology Perspective)

  • What are the major device integration, packaging, manufacturing, etc. challenges to inserting nanoscale silicon photonic based optical interconnects?
  • What is your vision on the optimal level of integration (on-board, on-multi-chip-carrier, on-chip, CMOS integrated)?
  • What are the critical engineering constraints and trade-offs of bringing optics to a chip-scale level (temperature, loss, footprint, power, integration level,...)? what are some of the fundamental limitations of nanophotonic components (modulators, receivers, switches, WDM etc.)?

Schedule: 4:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
4:30 – 4:40 – Foreword (Yurii Vlasov)
4:40 – 5:00 – Clint Schow (IBM)
5:00 – 5:20 – Moray McLaren (HP)
5:20 – 5:40 – Ron Ho (Sun Microsystems)
5:40 – 6:00 – Vladimir Stojanovic (MIT)
6:00 – 6:20 – Dries van Thourhout (Gent University)
6:20 – 6:40 – David A. B. Miller (Stanford University)
6:40 – 7:10 – Panel discussion
7:10 – 7:20 – Wrap-up (Keren Bergman)

Category E. Digital Transmission Systems

OSuA, Electronic Signal Processing and the Design of Optical Transport Systems, Doug McGhan¹, Peter Winzer²; ¹Nortel, Canada, ²Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, USA. This workshop will address system-level implications of digital signal processing (DSP) in high bit rate (>40 Gb/s) transponders. Carrier requirements and expectations will be discussed, such as the increasing need for spectral efficiency at sufficient transparent reach and at a reduced cost per bit, line system design and management complexity, implications of fiber quality on route planning, provisioning, performance monitoring, and expectations on a system's error and outage performance. These carrier views will be contrasted with system vendors' perspectives, including realistic transponder hardware implications (power consumption, footprint, scalability), implications of fiber nonlinearity, aspects of upgradability, and the co-existence of wavelengths at different bit rates. Furthermore, the interface between vendors and carriers regarding performance prediction and verification for systems relying heavily on DSP will be discussed. Download Workshop Agenda.

Category G. Optical Processing and Analog Subsystems

OSuC,Present and Future Applications of Analogue Microwave Photonics, Ernesto Ciaramella¹, Idelfonso Tafur-Monroy², Thomas Clark³; ¹Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Italy, ²Denmark Technical Univ., Denmark, ³JHU Applied Physics Lab, USA. Photonics may be even more suited for analog than for digital signal applications. Today, microwave photonics techniques are currently used in radio-over-fibre signal transmission and other commercial applications, but recent advances are widening the scope of application to new areas. The speakers will introduce present and emerging  opportunities for analog photonics, among which microwave filters, arbitrary optical waveform control, THz radiation and UWB pulse generation. A panel discussion will contrast different views from company, academy and funding bodies, to identify the most promising ones for commercial applications as well as the challenges and research opportunities to be pursued to make it reality.

A. Seeds, “Photonic synthesis of microwave signals” (4:30-4:50)
J. Capmany, “Photonics for microwave filtering and applications”; (4:50-5:10)
D. Turchinovich ,  “Photonics for Terahertz Communication Technology” (5:10-5:30)
S. J. Ben Yoo, “High-Fidelity Optical Arbitrary Waveform Generation and Detection” (5:30-5:50) 
 
Break (5:50-6:00)
 
M. Haney, “Analog photonic initiatives in DARPA” (6:00-6:20)
K.-I. Kitayama, "All-optical ultrafast analog-to-digital conversion and its applications"(6:20-6:40)
A. Weiner, Photonics for UWB Systems”, (6:40-7:00)
All speakers: panel discussion (7:00-7:30)

Category H. Core Networks

OSuB, Energy Footprint of ICT: Forecast and Network Solutions, Patrick Leisching¹, Mario Pickavet²; ¹Nokia-Siemens Networks, Germany, ²Ghent Univ., Belgium. ICT provides many energy-saving solutions, but is also responsible for a considerable and quickly increasing energy footprint on its own. Recent surveys estimate that the complete life-cycle of ICT equipment today is responsible for about 4% of the worldwide primary energy consumption. This percentage is expected to double within 10-15 years, if current ICT energy trends are not drastically deviated.

This workshop will provide insight in the main ICT energy consumption factors and their expected future evolution in transport networks, highlighting access, metro and core networks and server farms. Possible research directions and future network paradigms will be outlined, motivated and elaborated by expert speakers from industry and academia. Special attention will be paid to the role of optics. A closing panel discussion will identify key research challenges and action points.

Category I. Access Networks

OSuD, Migration Scenarios toward Future Access Networks I, Leonid Kazovsky¹, Kent G. McCammon²; ¹Stanford Univ., USA, ²Access Technologies, AT&T Labs, USA.
OMD, Migration Scenarios toward Future Access Networks II, Leonid Kazovsky¹, Kent G. McCammon²; ¹Stanford Univ., USA, ²Access Technologies, AT&T Labs, USA. Future broadband access networks are likely to be quite different from those we’re familiar with today. Most probably, they will consist of a fiber backbone and wireless “end links” to individual users. Thus, realistic, cost-effective migration scenarios for convergence of optical and wireless networks will be needed. The fiber backbone is likely to be highly flexible, dynamic, adaptive to traffic, and based on both TDM and WDM technologies. So, realistic migration scenarios from TDM toward hybrid TDM/WDM or even "pure" WDM will be needed. The wireless “end links” are likely to be based on a derivative of Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, or 3G cellular networks.These networks can evolve through several possible avenues including carrier-based PONs or hybrid fiber/coax networks; cell telephone networks; or their combinations. This evolution will require a significant R&D effort and major intellectual and financial investment, perhaps more significant than the investment that went into wide-area networks. It will also require new components, architectures and algorithms. This workshop will examine possible structure of future broadband access networks, likely evolution scenarios, and R&D issues that will need to be addressed to make the new networks a reality. Download Workshop I Agenda. Download Workshop II Agenda.

For Presentations from Sunday, March 22 click here.

Presentations from Monday, March 23 follow:
Introduction
PON Deployment in NTT and Possible Evolution Scenarios, Junichi Kani, NTT Access Network Service Systems Labs, Japan
KT FTTH Network Evolution, Hosung Yoon, Korea Telecom, South Korea
Preparing the Future of Optical Access at France Telecom, Fabrice Bourgart, France Telecom/Orange Labs, France

NFOEC 1: Optical Networks and Services

NSuA, Optical and Packet Control Planes: Convergence or Divergence? Lyndon Y. Ong; Ciena Corp., USA. Two major developments are impacting carrier transport networks: the first is the emergence of the optical control plane, applied initially to TDM and now to all-optical networks.  The second is the evolution of packet control planes, especially Ethernet, towards control by routing protocols (PLSB) and towards connection-oriented services (PBB-TE and MPLS-TP).  How do these developments compare and what are the key issues?  For example, all-optical networks may require greater complexity and overloading of the control plane – is distributed or centralized path computation the right model?  Packet networks are expected to offer multipoint as well as point-to-point services – is the functionality provided by control plane protocols a good fit?  Finally, what developments have been made in bodies such as IETF, OIF and ITU-T and in the research community to support interaction between optical and packet layers through a multi-layer control plane?  This workshop will explore the current state of work on optical and packet control planes, and the potential for multi-layer convergence.

Verizon Control Plane Market Drivers, Technology Trial Results and Future Plans, Mike Freiberger, Verizon Optical Transport
Recent Work on Wavelength Switched Optical Network Control Plane, Greg Bernstein, Grotto Networking, editor IETF WSON Framework
Directions for Control of Packet Transport - MPLS-TP and PBB-TE, Himanshu Shah, Ciena Transport R&D
Control of Tomorrow’s Optical Networks, Jim Jones, Alcatel-Lucent Optical Networking, VP of Marketing of OIF
GMPLS Developments for Multi-layer Networks, Kohei Shiomoto, NTT Laboratories
Simple Unified Control for Packet and Circuit Networks, Saurav Das, Stanford University OpenFlow program  

 

Monday, March 23, 8:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m.

Category A. Fibers and Optical Propagation Effects

OME, Fibers for FTTX, Xin Chen¹, Tomoharu Hasegawa²; ¹Corning Inc., USA, ²Asahi Glass Co., Japan. FTTx has attracted significant attention in the past few years. This workshop will explore the applications of novel fibers in the FTTx area with emphasis on the fibers that are used to connected to the end user, such as home and within the home. Specific coverage includes,

  • Different designs of bending insensitive fibers (BIFs) and polymer optical fibers (POFs).
  • Connectivity and System Aspects.
  • Perspective from Service Providers.

Leading researchers, fiber manufacturers and service providers around the world are invited to participate in the workshop.

Speakers:

Pierre Sillard, Draka Communications
Olaf Ziemann, Georg-simon-Ohm-Fachhochschule Nurnberg
David Peckham, OFS
Ming-Jun Li, Corning Incorporated
John Lambkin, Firecomms
Daiichirou Tanaka, AFL telecommunications, Japan

Perspectives from Service Providers
Glenn Wellbrock, Verizon USA
Nikolaus Gischen, Deutsche Telekom
Kazuhide Nakajima, NTT, Japan
Park Hyung Jin, KT, Korea

Category B. Fiber and Waveguide-Based Devices: Amplifiers, Lasers, Sensors and Performance Monitors

OMF, Size Matters--Breaking the Limits of High-Power Fiber Lasers, Johan Nilsson¹, Siddharth Ramachandran²; ¹Univ. of Southampton, UK, ²OFS Labs, USA. One of the hottest areas of growth in photonics outside of telecom is fiber lasers. This is fueled by diverse applications ranging from the materials processing and defense industries, to biomedical tools. Single-mode Yb-doped fiber lasers are now approaching 10 kW of output power, but recent estimates suggest that we may be running into fundamental scalability limits. This workshop will address this issue, and in particular, explore and debate the path-breaking technologies that fuel the recent dramatic advances in fiber lasers. Specific topics to be addressed include, but are not limited to:

  • Why fiber lasers, in the first place? Wavelengths, pulsewidths, linewidths, etc.
  • Core area scaling.
  • Influence of materials, dopant concentrations, photodarkening, etc.
  • Amplifier architectures and coherent combination techniques that enable power scaling.

Robust debate on these topics is anticipated, and potential participants are encouraged to submit ideas for presentation (5-10 min. slots). Such suggestions should be emailed to Johan Nilsson (jn@orc.soton.ac.uk) or Siddharth Ramachandran (sidr@ieee.org) by February 10, 2009.

(1) Introduction and Overview – setting the stage

(2) Strategies for Scaling Power – Physical effects & Constraints (08:50 – 09:43 AM)
(2A) Mode size scaling

(2B) Influence of the material

(3) Strategies for Scaling Power – Laser Designs & Architectures

Category D. Optoelectronic Devices

OMA, 100 Gb/s for $100, Bryan S. Robinson¹, Clint Schow²; ¹MIT Lincoln Lab, USA, ²IBM T.J. Watson Res. Ctr., USA. Performance gains in computer systems are increasingly achieved through interconnecting large numbers of parallel processor nodes. The resulting demands on communication bandwidth are challenging, with the computer backplane or the telecom terminal backplane looming as one of the primary bottlenecks to information transfer. Cost analysis places the break-even point for a compelling business case at $1 per Gbit/s. This workshop will cover several distinct approaches that address the backplane problem by displacing conventional copper with optical interconnects to meet future inter- and intra-rack bandwidth demands. A panel discussion will contrast the proposed approaches to identify the device technologies with the most promise to enable massive amounts of short-reach interconnect bandwidth at low-cost, with low-power consumption, a high area density, and potential for future scalability.

Category F. Transmission Subsystems and Network Elements

OMB, Single-Carrier Versus Multiple-Carrier Modulation Formats for WDM Systems, Henning Bülow¹, Sander Jansen²; ¹Alcatel-Lucent, Germany, ²Nokia Siemens Networks GmbH & Co. KG, Germany. New modulation schemes are being proposed to further mine the transmission bandwidth enabled by optical fiber and increased spectral efficiency. Two broad categories are emerging: single carrier and multiple carrier formats. Currently discussed approaches range from multi-level phase or amplitude modulation to optical OFDM, respectively. This workshop should explore pros and cons of the two approaches, including cost and realization aspects, performance over installed base, operational aspects, network availability, and ultimate spectral efficiency.

8:00 a.m.– 8:14 a.m. Introduction of the Workshop and an Overview on 100GbE Approaches
8:14 a.m.– 8:32 a.m. The "Five Ws" of 100G,Jim King, AT&T, USA. This talk will describe a carrier's view of the emergining 100G market, providing answers to the standard "Five W" questions (Who, What, Where, When, and Why) for this technology.  The answers will be drawn from parallels learned from AT&T's leadership in 40G development / deployment. 
8:32 a.m.– 8:50 a.m. The Strength of One, Kim Roberts, Nortel, Canada. One carrier, modulated at the highest baud rate where a CMOS A/D can provide Nyquist sampling, will produce the best cost/performance in spectrally constrained single mode applications. The Optical-OFDM class of processing is better applied to multimode fiber.  At the other extreme, myriad parallel incoherent optical carriers per signal are more useful in unamplified fibers where spectral efficiency does not dominate system costs.
8:50 a.m.– 9:08 a.m. No-Guard-Interval Coherent Optical OFDM for High Speed Optical Transport Networks, Akihide Sano and Yutaka Miyamoto, NTT, Japan. No-guard-interval coherent optical OFDM transmission scheme is attractive because of its compact signal spectra and high speed operation. We review its system configuration and transmission performances.
9:08 a.m.– 9:28 a.m. Break
9:28 a.m.– 9:46 a.m. O-OFDM Systems, Fred Buchali, Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, Germany. OFDM was recently introduced to fiber optical communication and fundamentals and several advantageous characteristics will be demonstrated. Especially the influence of signals peak to average power ratio on system performance will be discussed in detail leading to a high robustness against fiber nonlinearities in non dispersion managed fiber links.
9:46 a.m.– 10:04 a.m. Equalizer Complexity in Single and Multi-Carrier Coherent Optical Communications System, Bernhard Spinnler, Nokia Siemens Networks, Germany. Even though high speed electronics has made tremendous progress in terms of available processing power, the speed and implementable amount of digital logic still puts an upper limit on the complexity of digital signal processing algorithms. We investigate options for equalization in coherent optical communications systems and compare them in terms of complexity. We cover both single and multi carrier solutions with training and blind adaptation.
10:04 a.m.– 10:22 a.m. Key Technologies and Innovations for Next Generation 40G and 100G Optical Interfaces, Christoph Schulien, CTO, CoreOptics,Germany. Next generation electro-optical transmission interfaces for the core network employ higher level modulation formats like QPSK, n-QAM or OFDM in conjunction with polarization multiplexing and coherent detection. The related subsystem architectures require advances on multiple fronts in photonics and high-speed electronics technologies and components. At the same time a minimum amount of standardization will be necessary to justify investment in these technology innovations. This contribution will address these aspects specifically from a subsystem provider's prospective.
10:22 a.m.– 10:40 a.m. Soft Decision FEC for Single/Multi-Carrier Modulation, Takashi Mizuochi, Mitsubishi Electric,Japan. Codes, OH rate, and expected gain for soft-decision FEC in single-carrier/multiple-carrier modulation are discussed. A trial for hardware emulation of 100Gbps FEC is presented.
10:40 a.m.– 11:00 a.m. Discussion

Category J. Network Experiments and Non-Telecom Applications

OMC, Grid vs Cloud Computing and Why This Should Concern the Optical Networking Community, Chunming Qiao¹, Dimitra Simeonidou², Bill St. Arnaud³, Peter Tomsu4; ¹SUNY at Buffalo, USA, ²Univ. of Essex, UK, ³Canarie Inc., Canada, 4Cisco Systems Ltd., USA. Recently, there has been a lot of interests in Cloud, Grid and Utility computing and their influence in shaping the future network infrastructure. While Grid Computing is geared mainly towards scientific users and Grids, both Cloud and Utility computing are for enterprises. The common point for both approaches is their reliance on high speed optical networks to provide advanced and flexibly reconfigurable infrastructure. Optical network researchers are facing  big challenges in delivering the necessary technologies for supporting Cloud, Grid and Utility computing services. Such technologies and services will change the Internet in much the same way as distributed and parallel computing has changed the computation and cyber-infrastructure today. The workshop will discuss various Cloud, Grid and Utility Computing approaches and will present the challenges (research and implementation) for our community. Download individual speaker presentations.

Welcome/Introduction
Clouds and Optical Networks, Bill St. Arnaud, CANARIE Inc., Canada
Challenges in Enabling Cloud Computing over Optical Networks, Piero Castoldi, Barbara, Martini, Fabio  Baroncelli, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna Univ. Italy
Challenges in Enabling Grid Computing over Optical Networks, Cees de Laat, Univ. of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Virtualizing and scheduling network resource for emerging IT services: the CARRIOCAS approach, Pascale Vicat-Blanc Primet (INRIA) & Dominique Verchère (Alcatel Lucent BellLabs)
Energy / cost beneifts of cloud computing, Rodney Tucker, U. Melbourne, Australia
Opportunities  in Optical Grid and Clouding Computing, Chunming Qiao, SUNY Buffalo, USA
Panel discussion and Q&A

NFOEC 2: Network Technologies

NMA, Automated Fiber Optic Cross-Connects, Glenn Wellbrock; Verizon Corporate Network and Technology Organization, USA. The Advanced Fiber Connectivity and Switching Forum (AFCS) has been created to provide an open and neutral environment to share knowledge and information that can be used to accelerate the adoption and deployment of optical switching and advanced fiber connectivity solutions into networks worldwide. Specific objectives of the forum include 1) Creating industry awareness concerning the readiness and capabilities of key technologies, 2) Developing a stronger understanding of important network applications, 3) Promoting the benefits and value proposition to operators and other users of the technology, 4) Providing input to industry standards bodies, and 5) Resolving obstacles that stand in the way of widespread deployment of technologies for remote fiber management.

Advanced Fiber Connectivity and Switching Forum overview and application introduction by David Rapp, ADC
Carrier Hotel/Peering Exchange application presented by Jim Donnelly, Glimmerglass
Data Center and Lab Physical Layer Automation application presented by Larry Cantwell, OnPath Technologies 
Addressing Network Fiber Maintenance application presented by TJ Xia, Verizon 
FTTP PON Fiber to the Premises and Passive Optical Networks application presented by Joe Finn, Verizon
MDU Distribution application presented by Sandy Roskes, FiberZone Networks 
Transoceanic Cable Landing Site Monitoring application presented by Jim Diestel, Calient Networks
Remote Fiber Test and Monitoring application presented by Troy Veitenheimer, NTest

 

NFOEC Panels

Tuesday, March 24, 4:30 p.m.–6:30 p.m.

NFOEC 2: Network Technologies

NTuD, Deployment of New Fiber Types, Sergey Ten; Corning Inc., USA.

In the last five years the telecommunications industry witnessed the development of new optical fiber types for networks ranging from short distance access networks to transoceanic links. Evolving technical and deployment requirements of modern networks led to the proliferation of fibers with optimized attributes that were later formalized into distinct fiber standards. Will the trend continue or have all of the fiber types needed for the various networks been invented? This workshop will review the drivers for the deployment of new fiber types in the past and will examine the requirements of future networks. It will feature the “cross examination” of the subject by network operators, system houses and fiber manufacturers.

Wednesday, March 25, 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.

NFOEC 1: Optical Networks and Services

NWB, Emerging Carrier Optical Services, Vishnu S. Shukla; Verizon Communications, USA. Optical Transport Networks are undergoing a critical transition in which the network is migrating from a static legacy SONET/SDH-based transport to a dynamic intelligent Optical Transport Network (OTN). The driving forces behind this transition are the need to improve operational efficiency and to deploy more cost-effective optical transport than the existing ring-based infrastructure. There is growing customer demands for more bandwidth, faster provisioning, and richer sets of service functionality. In addition, there have been advances in OTN technologies and protocols that have made available a new generation of equipment that features a high degree of functional integration and is capable of supporting an embedded intelligent control plane (CP). This panel will examine the industry trends and deployment of emerging optical services in carrier network.

Thursday, March 26, 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.

NFOEC 2: Network Technologies

NThD, 40G Deployment in Carrier Networks, Alan Gibbemeyer; Nokia Siemens Networks, USA.

40G deployments are growing rapidly driven initially by router interconnectivity with very strong growth projections for the future across the market analyst community. Some analysts are expecting 40G ports to outnumber 10G during this calendar year and bandwidth growth is continuing to exceed expectations at carriers as well as large enterprises. Systems utilizing 10G technology are running out of capacity too quickly forcing the operators to overbuild and procure additional facilities such as fiber and space. New technologies like 100G will still need time to mature meaning that 40G technology will enjoy significant growth for some time to come. We will look at the status of 40G in the carrier DWDM networks, drivers for going to 40G as well as the challenges in rolling out this new generation technology. We will also investigate alternatives to 40G and offer an expert opinion on what to watch for in the near future.

Speakers:

Erwan Pincemin, France Telecom, Orange Labs
Glenn Wellbrock, Verizon Corporate Network and Technology Organization
Masahito Tomizawa, NTT Network Innovation Laboratories, NTT Corporation
Kathy Tse, AT&T Labs
Randy Nicklas, XO
Robert Feuerstein, BT
Michael Howard, Infonetics