ANDREW SCHMITT MARKET FOCUS
ECOC 2016: Maximise your return on investment By Andrew Schmitt, Cignal AI
photonics towards a new approach where the unique benefits of this material are better exploited. Intel and Inphi have both started shipping samples of silicon-based products that embrace this concept and I’m sure we will hear more at the Market Focus. You can read our thoughts on the subject at Cignal AI’s website. Network disaggregation is another concept that the industry is trying to digest and determine what opportunities it may present. Lumentum is a big proponent of the concept and will add to its previous opinions on the topic at this year’s Market Focus. Xilinx and II-IV Photonics also will present on this topic and share their vision of how FPGAs and network monitoring devices make the “Optical Whitebox” a deployable technology. Many other topics will be presented and I suggest reviewing the agenda and saving a few 30 minute timeslots for topics of interest to you. The conference is located right on the main floor of the show, allowing attendees to quickly pop in to listen and afterwards be on their way. But don’t forget to arrive early if there is a topic of great interest to you as the conference room is usually completely full, otherwise you will be left straining to hear from the show aisles. Even then, it is worth it. I will be at ECOC as well, so please reach out to me if you would like to meet. Just try to schedule around the Market Focus if you can!
No other investment of your time at ECOC 2016 will generate a return on investment as much as spending 30 minutes at a Market Focus session. Topics have been selected by a panel and as a result the content tends to stay objective or opinionated, but for the most part remains absent of overt commercialism. Attendees have the opportunity to listen in on a wide variety of talks about current topics from component and equipment vendors, as well as end-users and industry analysts. This year is shaping up to be another year of diverse speakers and subjects from different parts of the industry. Perhaps the best part of Market Focus is hearing from the end users themselves, and this year a number of great speakers are lined up. Deutsche Telekom will provide an update on its plans for managing multi-layer transport networks. Both BT and Telefonica will share perspectives on next generation fibre access architectures for both FTTH and mobile network fronthaul and backhaul. Finally, Facebook is certain to draw a packed-out crowd with its discussion and opinions on the deployment of 400GbE.
Attention please: visitors can expect packed panel sessions on a vast variety of topics.
Silicon photonics is one topic that Intel, Acacia Communications, and Inphi are all planning to address, while other companies are likely to weigh in with additional opinions on the next steps for this exciting technology. The optical component industry is changing from one in which existing InP and discrete designs were replicated in silicon
www.opticalconnectionsnews.com
43
ISSUE 7 | Q3 2016
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs