Short Courses

SC261 ROADM Technologies and Network Applications

Monday, February 25, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Thomas Strasser; Nistica Inc., USA

Level: Advanced Beginner (basic understanding of topic is necessary to follow course material)

Course Description
In the past few years one of the most promising new optical technologies has been the Reconfigurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer (ROADM). This technology is in the process of transforming worldwide metropolitan transport systems to a more automated and scalable network. Evidence of the commercial traction is seen in requests for proposals from the largest North American carriers, more than a dozen RFPs from service providers worldwide, and deployment of more than $100 million of ROADM technology in 2004. This represents a groundbreaking commercial technology transformation of transparent optical routing displacing electrical grooming equipment for the first time on such a wide scale. Despite the commercial success, substantial confusion has surrounded this technology. This is largely because (a) the ROADM market is poorly defined since it may mean a subsystem or a system, neither of which have market-accepted minimum functionalities; and (b) the lack of a clear market definition has been exploited to promote competing technologies driven by different commercial interests. This course will give a historical perspective of how this technology evolved, the numerous network benefits derived, and how those benefits depend on the functionality of the technology employed. Finally, the course will describe how these technologies are being integrated into WDM systems, and what types of networks most fully leverage the new capabilities to provide network value.

Benefits and Learning Objectives
This course should enable you to:

• Describe the network level benefits of ROADM systems.
• Define the different ROADM technology approaches competing in the market.
• Summarize the functionality differences between competing ROADM technologies, including which are most likely to succeed in the long term and why.
• Compare the incremental cost of a ROADM to the network level savings it enables.
• Discuss the types of networks that most fully benefit from ROADM technology and why.
• Explain the contradictory statements made about ROADM in trade literature.

Intended Audience
For anyone interested in more fully understanding the functionalities and benefits of ROADMs, including students, researchers, engineers, managers and executives involved in ROADM development, network design, network planning, and network operations.

Instructor Biography
Thomas A. Strasser received a doctorate from Cornell University designing periodic guided-wave devices and worked for three years at Eastman Kodak Research Labs and seven years at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. At Bell Labs his group invented and developed manufacturing for enabling technologies in the next generation transmission platforms of AT&T and Lucent Technologies. He served for five years as the chief technologist defining the ROADM-based platform of Photuris, and its subsequent acquirer, Mahi Networks. He is currently CTO of an early stage startup, Nistica Inc., focusing on next generation optical technologies. Strasser is the OFC/NFOEC 2006 General Co-Chair, after previously serving as the OFC 2004 Technical Program Co-Chair. He has contributed 40 patents and more than 100 presentations and publications in the field of optics and communication devices.