CONTENTS
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Industry News s
11 Ellen Manning The Money in the Market 14 Peter Carlsson Extending Fibre Over Coax 16 Ankit Agarwal The Road to 5G 20 Eugene Park The 600G Era 22 John Williamson Beyond 5G 26 Sarah Boen and David Akerson Datacentres 28 Antony Savvas Signal Processing 32 Evan Weinburg Full Fibre Networks 34 Matthew Peach ECOC Market Focus 37 Brian Smith ROADM Networks 40 John Williamson Optical Virtualisation 42 Roy Hagen Saving Power 44 Tom Snee Smart Cities 48 Matthew Peach ECOC Preview 52 Event Focus 54 Product Focus 14 Sam Bucci Optical N tworking 16 Ellen Manning Network Investment 18 John Williamson Fibre Optic Networks 20 Peter Dykes Fixed ireless Access 2 Antony Savvas Software Defi ed Networks 24 Rang-Chen (Ryan) Yu Molex 26 John Williamson D ta C ntre Interconnect 28 Kevin Bourg HFC Networks 31 Matthew Peach NGON Preview 32 Matthew Peach AngaCom Preview 36 vent Focus 38 Product Focus 4 Sa O e l e N t J hn l P Fi e r es S D Netw s R C n R an D r I n ct Ke u 3 An o v 3
The holiday season is over, but the fun hasn’t ended. Indeed, we’ve got some fantastic events coming up to enjoy, not the least of which is ECOC. Sold out again and bigger than ever, ECOC this year visits the historic and romantic city of Rome, bringing with it cutting-edge academic and scientific thought, combined with the optical industry’s most vibrant and successful expo. In this issue, Matt Peach previews the conference with an in-depth interview with the chair of the Technical Committee Antonella Bogoni, about the conference highlights and the future of the photonics industry. Peach also previews ECOC Market Focus, which is at the heart of the expo and covers everything from advances in disaggregated line systems for emerging data centre interconnects, to pushing the performance of 50Gbps NRZ polymer modulators, and everything in between. The onset of 5G is impossible to ignore and in this issue, we’ve got it covered. Veteran technology journalist John Williamson looks at the role of fibre in supporting the 1 billion 5G devices that are expected to be connected in the next five years. Equally important is the role that fibre will take in enabling the development of smart cities. Looking deeply into this topic is new contributor Tom Snee, who reports that much of the investment has to date gone into the development of end-use application rather than network infrastructure, which is something that has to change. Sterlite’s Ankit Agarwal, CEO of the company’s telecom products business, gives his views on the steps network operators must take to deal with the expected explosion of data that 5G will generate. On the subject of networks however, we also take a look at how interest is building in the virtualisation of fibre-optic transport networks. At the local level, the number of venture capital-funded FTTH networks is growing in the UK and we talk to the CEO of Truespeed, which is building an all-fibre network in South West England, about how funding was raised, the business model and marketing. Staying with FTTH, an interview with Peter Carlsson, CEO of InCoax reveals how the company is helping to cut the cost of taking fibre into multiple dwelling units, offices and hotels by taking advantage of the coax cabling that already exists in many buildings. On a more technical note, Lumentum’s Brian Smith explains how contentionless MxN wavelength selective switches (WSS) will provide superior optical performance and lower cost in next-generation CDC ROADM networks in the future. He argues that ROADM transport networks must be ‘future-proofed’ to support evolving coherent interfaces without constraints on bandwidth or power. There’s a lot going on in the industry for sure, but how is it translating into vendor revenues? Ellen Manning looks at the financial side of the industry to find out if revenues are rising, by how much and over what timescale. So, there’s plenty to think about and discuss when the industry meets up in Rome. See you there! An exciting time for the industry Apart from holidays and sunshine (unless you live in the UK), summer means we’re in the thick of the conference season. In this issue, we look at some of the topics that will be up for discussion at many of the shows, as well as the issues which are facing the industry as it moves into an era of expansion. Ellen Manning’s feature Sti ening the B ckbo e looks at the growing investment in n tional networks as consumer demands and he ava lab lity of new technologies drive opera ors to xpand their national backbone fibre etworks. A ross Eur pe, the US, Africa and he Middl East, b ckbones are b ing replaced by fibre on a massive scale and FTTP i becoming a reality for a rapidly growing number of households and business s. Th move from coaxial to fibre networks is not an nd in itself h wever a d K vin urg, optical netw rk a chit ct at Corning Optical Communications discusses how hybrid coax/fibre network volution can lay the found tions for full migration to FTTH. The e is potential thre t to the ubiquity of FTTP however and in his issu , w lo k at the growing popularity of Fixed Wireless Access f r last-mile connec ivity. expansion of the fibre market and the need for more spe d and capacity is having o her ramificatio s too. Network vendors are looking for ways of making se increasingly complex networks more ecie t. In our exclusiv intervi w with Nokia’s head of IP Transp rt, Sam Bucci talks about the company’s new Phot nics Service Eng e which au matically selects the approp iate modulation scheme for any particular application a d in the process, greatly incr ases th capacity of new nd existi g networks i frastructures. Automation is also becoming a hot issue both at the device level and for network infra truc ure manag ment. John Williamson looks at the intensive component, pro uct and system developments that are currently underway, with producers and manufacturers looking to improve th logis ics, perf rmance a d economics of optical networks. Developmen s i SDN ar also impacting on the ecie cy of fibre-optic networks. With network speeds explodi g through 100G, 200G and 400G to cope with tra deman s, writes Antho y Savvas, consumers are expecting to pay the same or even less, for mor and more bandwidth and so flexible network management sys ms a e now being used to cop with this scenario. The growing tendency to connect multipl data centres is having ramifications cross th industry and Joh Williamson explores the chang ng nature of the data centre inte connect market the projected growth n equipment revenues, he automation of network managem nt and the m e away from proprietary solutions. This theme is also examined by Ryan Yu, vice president of busin ss development and GM of optoelectronic soluti ns at Oplink, who discuss s in depth the p ss bilities for nnecting hyperscale data e tres. So, there will be plenty to talk about at the upcoming indus y events a d on the subject, as th newly-app inted editor of Optical C nnections, I will be attending AngaCom and NGON in June and I look for ard o meeting wit as many of our loyal rea ers and suppor ers as time allow . It’s going to b a great summer! Summer is her ! li i l li i , ’ i i . I i i , l i i l f i i s , ll i e i h i i i i i . le M ing’ S i i bo e l ok e owi i m i io l or a um r em and h il ility n nol drive or to p d t i a i l ba bo e w . cr , U , Af i t i l , a es r being pl b r a s iv s le n is i g li i l g o i e s ld n b i s. o e ro coa ial b et r s i n a d in i s f e a in , i l n w r r i ec C nin ptical mmunica i s dis ss s w b id c n v l i l y he nd ti f u l migr io o . The e i i l h t t he ubiq i P ve and i his i , l e owing popularity ix i l c l t il c c i it . e an ion e k r e pe d i y i havi g t a i i t o. N k dor a lo ing o a of i s i c si gly ompl r e i . I o lusi e in vi i N i ’ h ad I a r , i al ab o ’ ic Ser i i ich t ic ly select t a ri ula ion s m a r i l a li a io i t , r ly in e pa i nd e is i n or i a ure . o a i is al ec in a i t t e i l l an r n i tr ur a a emen . J h i li m on l s th in i mpo , prod n s m l pm l , i f t l ki im ve t l isti , p m nce a d e n mic o i al o . ev l s i a e l o i i g o he i y fib o tic . Wi pe l o 1 G, 0G t c it r ema s, i n o v as, u r r ex ti t pa m v n l ss, f o a o e i d s flexi l r m ag nt s s m re i g us o e wit t i a i . g i d cy c n ultipl d n res is vi a i c io cr h i r J i li so x lo s h ngin u e i r t m , t j c ed in ip en u , a m i n of n t r m geme e f riet ol i . Thi me i ls i e y a , i si b i s vel an G l ct o i s l i li , h is us i e ibili i nn i g l t e s. So, t e e wi l le y o al u a u c i ind tr a d o s j , e l a int d edi r ic l nn ti , I i l i A m a in n I l ar o in i as f l l u e tim a l w . I ’ goi b eat s S m
Peter Dykes Editor, Optical Connections Peter Dykes Editor, Optical Connections Editor, Optical Connections
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ISSUE 14 | Q3 2018 3 2 I 3 | 2
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