NSuA — Packet/TDM Network Convergence: Opportunities and Challenges

Organizer: Bob Doverspike; AT&T Labs Res., USA.

Robert Doverspike (IEEE SM 1997) received his undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado and Masters and Ph.D. degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).  He began with Bell Labs in 1979 and, upon divestiture of the Bell System, went to Bellcore (now Telcordia).  In 1997 he returned to AT&T Labs (Research) where he is now Executive Director of Transport Network Evolution Research.  Dr. Doverspike has made extensive contributions to the field of optimization in multi-layered transmission and switching networks and pioneered the concept of packet transport in metro and long distance networks.  He also pioneered work in advanced transport and IP network architectures, network restoration methods for optical cross-connects (for which he holds numerous patents and patent applications), and methods for integrated network management and restoration of IP-over-optical-layer networks.  Dr. Doverspike is a member of INFORMS and the Optical Society of America (OSA), a senior member of IEEE Communications Society, an INFORMS Fellow and a co-founder INFORMS Technical Section on Telecommunications.

Packet & TDM Networks: Convergence or Replacement? Mehran Esfandiari, Lead Member of Technical Staff, AT&T Labs

Mehran Esfandiari is  Lead Member of Technical Staff, in the “Network Architecture & Planning” organization at AT&T.  He has over 24 years diversified experience in strategic transport network architecture, planning & design, network optimization, technology assessment & selection, and new feature/product development.    He received his MSEE degree from UCLA in Los Angeles, California, and since 1983  has worked in various capacities in Pacific Bell, SBC, and now AT&T. Currently he  is involved in the development of the AT&T’s optical network strategic direction and the evaluation& impact of next generation ROADM, OXC, MSPP & L1/L2 convergence issues. He has authored many papers in  technical conferences and holds several patents in the field of network design & survivability.

Optical Burst Transport: Enabling the Co-Existence of Packet and TDM Services in a Packet Optical Network,Luis Aguirre-Torres, Director of Technical Marketing, Matisse Networks

Prior to joining Matisse Networks in 2007, Luis Aguirre-Torres joined AT&T in 2001, where his main focus as a Researcher and later on as a Network and Services Architect was the development of new packet transport and control plane architectures. He joined Corrigent Systems in 2004 as Director of Product Marketing where he contributed to the development and promotion of packet-efficient transport technologies. In 2007, he joined Matisse Networks where he currently holds the position of Director of Technical Marketing, focused on the development and promotion of optical burst transport technology. For the past several years he has made numerous contributions in the areas of Ethernet and MPLS control plane architectures as well as packet transport and control plane resiliency, resulting in multiple patents and publications.

Using Ethernet for Ubiquitous Packet Transport Networks – What it Would Take? Gady Rosenfeld, Vice President Marketing, Corrigent Systems

Gady Rosenfeld has more than 15 years of experience in marketing, business development, and strategic planning, and is responsible for defining the marketing and product planning strategies for Corrigent Systems. Prior to assuming his current position, Mr. Rosenfeld led Corrigent's product marketing since its inception. Formerly, Mr. Rosenfeld served as a marketing and business development manager for Orckit Communications, where he led planning and market research initiatives. He holds a B.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics and M.Sc. in Theoretical Physics.

Last Mile Packet/TDM Convergence, Ralph Ballart, Vice President, Portfolio Strategy, Alcatel/Lucent

Ralph Ballart joined Alcatel-Lucent in 2006 and in his current position helps ensure that the company’s Ethernet/IP/MPLS-based products are coordinated with respect to technology choices and market positioning.  Ballart retired in 2005 from AT&T Laboratories, where he was VP, Broadband and managed the broadband approval for use lab.  While at SBC Labs, Ballart initiated then SBC’s work in the area of PON, DSL and metro Ethernet.  Ballart has a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Arizona and began his career with Bell Laboratories in 1980. He joined Bellcore in 1984 and worked on SONET, writing the first contribution proposing SONET for standardization in the ITU in 1987.

Transport Network Evolution – TDM and Packet Services, Nabil Bitar, Principal Member of Technical Staff, Verizon

Nabil Bitar holds BS, MS and  PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He is currently a Principal Member of Technical Staff at Verizon in the Packet Network Architecture department. He leads the network architecture for metro packet services, including Ethernet Services, Metro packet transport, video packet transport (video on demand, IPTV),  IPVPN, VoIP routing, and IP and Ethernet services over FTTP. He is also a principle member of a team working on IP-MPLS backbone convergence. Prior to joining Verizon in 2004, Dr. Bitar worked at Ascend/Lucent as a system architect for ATM and IP-MPLS services (forwarding, traffic management, signaling and routing). Prior to Ascend/Lucent, he worked at GTE Laboratories for 5 years on wireless AIN, ADSL architecture, IP Intserv and Diffserv, MPLS, VoIP and traffic management. He holds several patents and has others pending on traffic management, forwarding, switching and IP routing.  He is also a regular contributor at the IETF and IP/MPLS Forum.

Packet Transport Evolution – Combining Ethernet Simplicity and Optical Transport Efficiency, Achim Autenrieth, Head of Innovation, IP Transport R&D Management, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia Siemens Networks

Achim Autenrieth received his Dipl.-Ing. and Dr.-Ing. degree in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from the Munich University of Technology (TUM), Germany, in 1996 and 2003, respectively. In January 2003 he joined Siemens Corporate Technology as Senior Research Scientist. In January 2006 he moved to the Fixed Networks Business Unit at Siemens Com, where he was working in the development of advanced concepts for multilayer optical transport networks. In October 2006 the department was transferred to Siemens Networks which became part of the joint-venture Nokia Siemens Networks in April 2007. His research interests are in the area of multilayer transport networks (OTN/DWDM, SDH/SONET, Ethernet/PBB-TE/T-MPLS, IP/MPLS), control plane protocols (ASON/GMPLS), network architecture evaluation, network design, resilience, routing and grooming in multilayer networks. Achim Autenrieth is a member of IEEE and VDE/ITG.

Emerging IP-over-WDM Architectures, Loukas Paraschis, Business Development Manager of Emerging Markets and Service Providers, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Loukas Paraschis is Business Development Manager at Cisco, responsible for next generation IP core, edge, and optical network solutions in the Emerging Markets Service Provider Solution Architectures and Scaling group. At Cisco, he has worked primarily on transport and WDM networks, and multi-service metro and IP-over-WDM architectures. Prior to his current role, Loukas worked as an R&D Engineer, Product Manager, and Technical Leader in optical networks and completed graduate studies at Stanford University (Ph.D. 1999, M.S. 1998). He has (co)-authored more than 50 technical reports, peer-reviewed publications, invited and tutorial presentations, a book chapter, and three patent applications. Loukas was born and raised in Athens, Greece, where he completed his undergraduate studies.