2011 Workshops and Panels
OFC/NFOEC Workshops provide opportunities to discuss and debate the latest technologies. Workshops will be highly interactive, amongst 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 presentations (5 to 10 minutes) from people involved in the field followed by a panel discussion driven by questions from the audience.
The 2011 conference features workshops in current areas of interest in optical communications. All OFC/NFOEC attendees are encouraged to participate. Workshops will be held on Sunday, March 6, 4:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m., and Monday, March 7, 8:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. The workshops provide an interactive learning environment and are open to all conference registrants.
Panel sessions provide interactive discussions focused on topics of interest to the industry. Panel discussions are comprised of industry panelists and represent a broad range of viewpoints and technology. Panels will be held throughout the week, and all OFC/NFOEC technical registrants are encouraged to attend these exciting sessions.
Like invited and tutorial speakers, workshop and panel topics and organizers are chosen through a highly selective nominations process.
Also, see the Invited, Tutorial, and Symposia speakers!
Category 1. Optical Network Applications and Services
Category 2. Network Technologies and Applications
Category 3. FTTx Technologies, Deployment, and Applications
Category 5. Fibers and Optical Propagation Effects
Category 6. Fiber and Waveguide-Based Devices: Amplifiers, Lasers, Sensors, and Performance Monitors
Category 7. Optical Devices for Switching, Filtering and Signal Compensation
Category 8. Optoelectronic Devices
Category 9. Digital Transmission Systems
Category 10. Transmission Subsystems and Network Elements
Category 11. Optical Processing and Analog Subsystems
Category 12. Core Networks
Category 13. Access Networks
Category 14. Datacom, Computercom, and Short Range and Experimental Optical Networks
Category 1. Optical Network Applications and Services
PANEL: Network Requirements of Warehouse-Scale Computing for Cloud Applications
Organizer: Paulie Germano; Google, USA
The ever-increasing ubiquity and speed of Internet access has enabled applications to move from the desktop to a Web-based service delivery model. This distributed model is commonly referred to as cloud computing.
The underlying infrastructure consists of data centers housing massive amounts of compute and storage resources. These resources are not simply a collection of servers but a carefully controlled and scheduled distributed machine. The network plays an critical role in maximizing the efficiency of the most expensive component of these systems, the servers themselves, by reducing constraints on workload placement.
The panel will consist of experts in the cloud computing space and will cover the unique network requirements, design challenges, and desired future hardware and software features of these systems and their components.
PANEL: Tradeoffs and Drivers for Tunable/Colorless Networks
Organizer: Zeljko Bulut; Nokia Siemens Networks, USA
Rapid service provisioning, OpEx reduction through automation, and more efficient bandwidth utilization are the key drivers for the deployment of dynamically reconfigurable optical networks. While some key ingredients necessary to build tunable ROADMs have been available for some time, fully operational tunable networks are yet to be offered and deployed. Beside tunable ROADMs and transponders such solutions must deliver a well-tuned control plane with an integrated physical layer engine. A number of technologies today are competing to enable the most optimized and cost-efficient ROADM architecture, each with its own inherent set of advantages and disadvantages. We will discuss the business drivers for tunability and explore these key technologies and tradeoffs facing equipment suppliers and network designers when considering deployments of new optical infrastructure.
WORKSHOP: Beyond 100G, Options and Implications for Today's Networks
Organizer: Glenn Wellbrock; Verizon, USA
Category 2. Network Technologies and Applications
PANEL: Electronic Mitigation of Transmission Impairments, from 10 Gbps through 100 Gbps—Component Vendor Perspective
Organizer: Norman Swenson; Clariphy Communications, USA
PANEL: 100G Technology and Deployment
Organizer: Michel Chbat; Nokia Siemens Networks, USA
Category 3. FTTx Technologies, Deployment, and Applications
WORKSHOP: FTTX: What Does X Mean to You?
Organizers: Marek Hajduczenia; ZTE Corp., Portugal
Fiber in the access loop is rapidly gaining ground versus competitive technologies (copper, HFC) and together with the wireless represents the networking paradigm of tomorrow for access networks. However, when we look across the board and examine how fiber is used and what applications it serves, the image is very fragmented. This situation is very well reflected in the slur of marketing acronyms, generating a wave of FTTX acronyms, indicating the target application for fiber access of the given service provider. We hear about fiber to the house, business, node, base station, village, campus etc. It is a very complex environment, and in this workshop we will try to have a closer look at what the X in the FTTX means for individual operators, service providers, technologists, or even everyday service consumers. We will take a peek at various ways of using fiber in the access, novel fiber applications and some of the upcoming technologies.
Speakers:
Mike Bennet; Lawrence Berkeley Natl. Lab, USA
Victor Blake; MSO Consultant, USA
Fabrice Bourgart; France Telecom, France
Paulo de Lutiis; Telecom Italia, Italy
Ryo Inohara; KDDI Labs, Japan
David Li; Ligents Photonics, USA
Derek Nesset; British Telecom, UK
Kenyichi Suzuki; NTT, Japan
Hosung Yoon; Korea Telecom, Republic of Korea
PANEL: Advances in PON Systems and Deployment Technologies for PON Systems
Organizer: Junichi Kani; NTT Access Service Systems Labs, Japan
PON systems have become widespread with the help of many technologies realizing easy and rapid installation as well as providing various advanced services. This panel will try to identify the direction of research and development on PON-related technologies in the next decade by reviewing and discussing various topics such as:
- Recent advances in PON systems under deployment,
- Recent advances in technologies to accelerate the deployment of PON systems,
- Issues to further accelerate the worldwide deployment of PON systems,
- Possible deployment of next-generation PON system and its requirements.
PANEL: Drivers and Applications for High-Speed PON Systems
Organizer: Christoph Pfistner; NeoPhotonics, USA
Both GPON and GEPON have become mainstream access network architectures providing connectivity at data rates of up to 2.5 Gbps. In the meantime IEEE and ITU/FSAN are defining the standards for next-generation access networks supporting bandwidth of 10G, and discussions have started on how to push access network speeds even further. This panel will focus on the drivers and applications of high speed PON systems. How do residential video services compare with high bandwidth applications for businesses, and what role will high speed PON systems play in next-generation mobile backhaul?
Join us in this exciting session where executives from service and system providers will present their views on the key drivers of the high-speed PON market. The individual presentations will be followed by a panel discussion and open Q&A session.
PANEL: FTTH Around the World: Today and Tomorrow
Organizer: Shoichi Hanatani; Hitachi, Japan
Category 5. Fibers and Optical Propagation Effects
WORKSHOP: Next-Generation Fibers for High Capacity Transmission—Radical Solutions
Organizers: Hans Limberger¹, David Richardson², Toshio Morioka³; ¹Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland; ²Optoelectronics Res. Ctr., Univ. of Southampton, UK; ³NTT Network Innovation Laboratories, Japan
Category 6. Fiber and Waveguide-Based Devices: Amplifiers, Lasers, Sensors, and Performance Monitors
WORKSHOP: Best Saturable Absorber for Mode-Locked Fiber Lasers: SESAME, CNT, or Graphene?
Organizer: Sze Y. Set¹, Ju Han Lee², Morten Ibsen³; ¹Alnair Labs Corp., Japan, ²Univ. of Seoul, Republic of Korea,³Univ. of Southampton, UK
Recently a number of new exciting saturable absorbers have emerged for passive mode-locking of fiber lasers to challenge the more established semiconductor-type mode-locker. Some of these new materials, including Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) and Graphene, boast a much wider bandwidth of operation, much quicker recovery time, and evidently are also more efficient at providing shorter pulses and higher pulse energies than traditionally used materials. Is this likely for these nano-carbon materials to replace the SESAM as the material of choice for passive mode-locking of fiber lasers? There are still issues to be resolved related to CNTs and Graphene though, including not least their long-term stability and reliability. This workshop will debate the pros and cons of these various mode-locking technologies and will attempt to establish whether the time has come for SESAM to give way to the emerging nano-carbon-based technologies as the best saturable absorber for passive mode-locking of fiber lasers.
Category 7. Optical Devices for Switching, Filtering, and Signal Compensation
WORKSHOP: Is Si Photonics Applicable to Telecom Application?
Organizer: Solomon Assefa; IBM T. J. Watson Res. Ctr., USA
Category 8. Optoelectronic Devices
WORKSHOP: Photonic Integration: More Technologies than Applications?
Organizers: Martin Schell¹, Andreas Beling²; ¹Fraunhofer Inst. for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Inst., Germany, ²u2t Photonics AG, Germany
Category 9. Digital Transmission Systems
WORKSHOP: Is Shannon It?
Organizers: Yi Cai¹, Peter Winzer²; ¹Tyco Electronics Subsea Communications LLC, USA, ²Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, USA
Category 10. Transmission Subsystems and Network Elements
WORKSHOP: Software Defined Optical Transceivers – What Can We Do with Them?
Organizers: David Plant¹, Xiang Liu², Michael Taylor³; ¹McGill Univ., Canada, ²Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, USA, ³Atlantic Sciences/Optametra, USA
The workshop will debate the need for smart, data-rate and format agile, impairment aware/tolerant software-defined transceivers for future optical transmission systems. Potential application of such transceivers in traditional fiber communications systems as well as emerging data center centric networks will be discussed. Implementation aspects of these transceivers will also be discussed.
Category 11. Optical Processing and Analog Subsystems
WORKSHOP: Where Can Optical Analog-Digital Conversion Compete?
Organizers: Michael Dennis¹, Keith Williams²; ¹Johns Hopkins Univ. Applied Physics Lab, USA, ²Naval Research Lab, USA
Category 12. Core Networks
WORKSHOP: Spectrally/Bit-Rate Flexible Optical Network Design and Operation
Organizers: Andrew Lord¹, Annalisa Morea²; ¹BT, UK, ²Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, France
Since the very beginning of WDM, the available optical spectrum has been divided into fixed frequencies according to the standardized ITU-grid. Flexible, dynamic optical networks, ITU-grid based, are now available and installed worldwide. A further step would be to better adapt the transported optical signals to the incoming data, hence allow optical bandwidth and capacity to be completely elastic. Advantages are to improve flexibility and spectrum efficiency. Flexible optical filters and transmission techniques such as OFDM are key enablers. However, the optical component industry has relied on fixed ITU-grid and capacity to help reduce costs of transponder and filters.
This workshop will explore whether elastic networks are cost-effective solutions. Opinions of operators, component, and equipment vendors will enable a broad ranging and controversial debate.
Category 13. Access Networks
WORKSHOP: What Is Next for High-Speed PON: Evolution or Revolution?
Organizer: Neda Cvijetic; NEC Labs America, USA
WORKSHOP: Wireline and Wireless Access Network Integration/Convergence
Organizer: Milorad Cvijetic¹, Leonid Kazovsky²; ¹NEC Corp. of America, USA, ²Stanford Univ., USA
In recent years, there has been growing discussion about seamless integration of wireline and wireless access networks to provide both increased mobility and bandwidth for broadband services. Moreover, fiber penetration to end users has opened new vistas to be explored in the broadband access arena. Several large research projects have also been launched on this topic and are complemented by significant testbed developments. In this workshop, key insights and challenges of wireless/wireline access convergence will be discussed from both technology and deployment/operational perspectives. Prominent speakers from leading international carriers, equipment vendors, and academia will be featured.
Category 14. Datacom, Computercom, and Short Range and Experimental Optical Networks
WORKSHOP: Exascale Computing: Where Optics Meets Electronics
Organizers: Norm Jouppi, Moray McLaren; Hewlett-Packard Labs, USA