CONTENTS
4 Industry News 14 Matthew Peach OFC Expands 16 John Williamson 18 Ellen Manning Testing Times 22 Antony Savvas Delivering Optimised Network Design 24 Juan Manuel Perez Cortijo Fibre Innovations 26 John Williamson Keeping The Show On The ROADM 30 Matthew Peach Silicon Photonics: Bigger Is Better 32 Antony Savvas Software Marching On 34 Howard Forryan Optical Fibre Assembly 36 Event Focus 38 Product Focus Life In The Fast Lane
As the communications industry prepares to meet and greet at the year’s first wave of international expos and events, Optical Connections looks at the hot topics that will be discussed in the exhibition aisles and conference rooms at the likes of OFC, PIC International and Data Centre World. So this issue is designed to complement these events with its mix of technology trend reviews, market analysis and applications coverage. As ever, we have numerous recent application reviews and product announcements – with even more available on our sister website. Our OFC preview feature says this year’s biggest industry event is expecting more than 15,000 attendees and at least 700 exhibitors. OFC’s 1100-plus conference sessions will tackle data-centre connectivity, 5G-oriented optical networking, quantum-scale and cloud computing, and the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in optical networks. These events will be looking at the implications of the fast-evolving 400G networks. In “Life In The Fast Lane”, John Williamson considers the new approaches and challenges linked to upping the optical capacity ante. Inevitably, higher transmission rates means better testing approaches and systems are required, as Ellen Manning finds in “Testing Times”. Similarly, how is the industry tackling optical network design and tra c management to deliver faster speeds over longer distances and for new services? Antony Savvas looks at how network design is being optimised to maximise tra c flexibility. Corning, a key exhibitor at many of these events, is providing the infrastructure for many of these high-speed networks. Juan Manuel Perez Cortijo, the company’s EMEA Marketing Director, reviews recent fibre innovations and looks at how such developments can boost bandwidth and cut signal error. Looking at recent innovations in ROADMs, John Williamson finds that the use of SDN is enabling operators to control ROADMs in terms of end-to-end connectivity, virtualised protection, restoration management and bandwidth management. A new take on the increasingly ubiquitous technology of silicon photonics is described in “Bigger is better” – a surprising proposal from Rockley Photonics, first presented at Photonics West 2018 in January, which says that to optimise performance in optical communications device structures should be bigger rather than smaller to match the scale of infrared wavelengths. If you happen to be at OFC 2018 in reliably sunny San Diego, the Optical Connections team will also be in attendance, so please visit us on stand 4803 and let us know what you are doing. It’s showtime
Matthew Peach Contributing Editor, Optical Connections
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ISSUE 12 | Q1 2018
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