CONTENTS
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Industry News
12 John Williamson – FTTx Needs To Pass the Test 15 Magnus Angermund – Europe’s FTTx Demands New Methods 16 Matthew Peach – The Broad View of High Speed Connectivity 18 Antony Savvas – Next-Gen Software the Key 20 Stefan Vorndran & Scott Jordan – Automated Alignment Boosts 23 Ellen Manning – Not Just Greener Networks 24 Matthew Peach – Connect 2017 in Berlin Throws Light on Gigabit Broadband 26 Markus Weber – Coherent Interoperability Required 28 John Williamson – Silicon Photonics Passes the Tipping Point 30 Li Hongbiao – Bearer Networks Challenges 32 Antony Savvas – The Changing Test & Measurement Landscape 34 Event Focus 35 Product Focus
Hit the ground running
Happy New Year! to all our readers. 2018 is forecast by many to be an even busier year for the industry, matched by a new calendar of larger exhibitions and conferences, reflecting increased activity in emerging areas like gigabit networks, Gfast and silicon photonics solutions, and 5G for people on the move. But just because the industry can do something it doesn’t always mean it’s cost e ective. A case in point is FTTX, which needs to pass the cost-benefit test before it should be deployed, as John Williamson writes. Continuing this theme, Hextronic argues that Europe’s booming FTTX rollout is demanding new methods and solutions. In October, Broadband World Forum presented a wide range of services and solutions. From that Berlin gathering Optical Connections has derived an interview with Robin Mersh, CEO of the Broadband Forum, as well as a report from Adtran’s Connect 17 industry conference. Considering that next-generation optical software is the key to future services, Antony Savvas says that operators need to take a mix-and-match approach to networks if they are to meet the demands of the cloud, 5G and the Internet of Things. The development of automated fibre aligners has made a significant di erence to what could be a tedious task. So how has this technology progressed from the early devices, and what is possible with today’s technology? Experts from Physik Instrumente explain its evolution. Regular contributor Ellen Manning this issue looks at the development of greener optical networks. She finds that besides satisfying increasing legislation in this area, greener optical networks can actually be cheaper, perform better and occupy less space. It wouldn’t be Optical Connections if we didn’t give an update on silicon photonics. Now John Williamson believes that this technology has passed the “tipping point”, adding that with its immense potential for cost e ective transformation of optical communications and data management, silicon photonics is now coming of age. There’s more on coping with Cloud-based service provision and storage, from guest author Li Hongbiao of ZTE; and the likely impacts of 400G data rates on the test and measurement landscape by Antony Savvas. If you’re getting straight out of the blocks in 2018 to attend Photoptics (25-27 January, Madeira); Metro Connect (29-31 January, Miami, USA); FTTH Europe (13-15 February, Valencia); or Mobile World Congress (26 February – 1 March, Barcelona), then we may well see you there.
Matthew Peach Contributing Editor, Optical Connections
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ISSUE 11 | Q4 2017
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