MATTHEW PEACH NORTHERN HIGHLIGHTS
PLENARY SPEAKERS
Super-channel transmission is a dominant topic with several important results being presented. Furthermore, transmission nonlinearity compensation by optical phase conjugation is maturing and a number of important results and investigations will be reported. SC5 – Datacom and Computercom Hardware The new subcommittee on Datacom and Computercom Hardware has received a good number of submissions covering topics ranging from the application of spatial division multiplexing techniques and transceiver technologies to advanced low- cost modulation formats suitable for short multicore and combined modegroup and wavelength division multiplexing have been proposed for datacom and computercom scenarios. In the case of transceivers, silicon photonics and VCSEL based configurations have attracted the interest of researchers, who will present their promising results during the conference. PAM4 modulation format has been the subject of a good number of submissions reporting very relevant results in the context of 100Gpbs transmission. Alternative modulation formats, such as DMT and polybinary are the subjects of other interesting contributions. SC6 – Point-to-Point Transmission Links Spatial division multiplexing (SDM), both multimode and multicore transmission is a consistently popular topic. A number of papers address multicore amplifiers, nonlinear characterisation and mitigation always attracts numerous papers in the transmission community. SC7 – Core, Metro, and Data Centre Networks This year’s conference will confirm that the days of “set-and-forget” optical networking are numbered, and that the rigid segmentations in siloed subnetworks (access, metro, data center and core) is being shaken. A new symbiosis of 5G access and data centers with optical technologies will come to light. End-to- end control and orchestration of network resources according to service demands while accounting for novel monitoring of physical impairments, has not only become a must-have, but is gradually turned into a reality. These trends are facilitated by new opportunities offered by machine learning and artificial intelligence. SC8 – Access, Local Area and Indoor Networks Several mainstream areas can be identified: 25G+ PON, Coherent, Optical wireless and mobile fronthaul for 5G, access management and virtualization. A trend was submissions on new areas: beam-steering, vehicular communication, underwater communication, and factory environments. range distance communications. In the first topic, both the use of and a few investigate the potential for SDM in submarine links. Finally,
“for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources”. Prof. Philip Diamond – Square Kilometre Array and how it will rely on optical fibre systems
Besides the comprehensive regular conference and the invariably well- attended Market Focus sessions on the show floor, there are also some special plenary conferences being given by industry luminaries, which are selected to provide some thoughtful, wider context of the latest industrial developments. This year’s selection includes the following names and topics: Dr. VijayVusirikala–Adecadeof softwaredefinednetworkingatGoogle Dr. Vusirikala is Head of Optical Network Architecture and Engineering at Google, responsible for technology development, design, scaling and optimization of Google’s optical network. Outline: “Google’s global cloud infrastructure is built on three pillars: ubiquity, disaggregation and high availability. To support these three pillars, we have been building a network unparalleled in reach, scale and capability over the last decade. Early on, we realized that the network we needed to support our services did not exist and could not be bought. Hence, over the past 10-plus years, we set out to fill in the required pieces in-house. Software defined networking is the only way we build network infrastructure at Google today.” Prof. Anne L’Huillier – 50 years of Nobel Prizes in Photonics L’Huillier is professor in Atomic Physics at Lund University, Sweden, since 1997. Her research is centred on high-order harmonic generation in strong laser fields and its applications, in particular, to attosecond science. Outline: “This presentation will describe some of the Nobel prizes in Physics in the area of Photonics. Starting from the 1964 Nobel prize to Townes, Basov and Prokhorov “for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle” to the 2014 Nobel prize to Akasaki, Amano and Nakamura Dr Vijay Vusirikala Prof Anne L’Huillier
Prof. Diamond is the Director- General of the SKA (Square
Kilometre Array). Appointed to this position in 2012, he is responsible for the team designing and constructing the SKA, which will be the largest scientific project on Earth. Outline: The Square Kilometre Array, a next-generation radio telescope, will change the way humanity views the Universe. The SKA will be built in Australia and South Africa by an international consortium, currently of 10 nations. The SKA will enable precise studies of the secrets of gravity, dark energy, dark matter and the molecular building blocks of life. I will describe in detail the critical role that optical fibre systems play in enabling the SKA, with its requirement to transmit data at Tbit/ sec rates over hundreds and thousands of kilometres, to become a reality. Kazuo Hagimoto –Optical Communications: Past, Present, and Future In 1980, Prof. Philip Diamond
Hagimoto joined NTT’s Electrical Communications Laboratories, in Yokosuka, Japan, where he has led R&D projects on high- speed optical communications
Kazuo Hagimoto
systems including 10G and higher EDFA repeatered systems. After working as executive director of Science and Core Technology Laboratory Group, he has been the President and CEO of NTT Electronics since 2013. Outline: “Looking back the milestones of fibre-optic systems, the future of related technologies will be discussed referring to the evolution of wireless systems. I will present the implications of optical communications being based on the laser frequencies of the 200 THz and draw on m current research interests of very large capacity optical network systems and media networking technologies utilizing such systems.”
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ISSUE 10 | Q3 2017
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