Consumer demands and the availability of new technologies are driving operators to expand their national backbone fibre networks EllenManning – see page 16
NEWS & BUSINESS
APAC leads in optical fibre splicing market volumes
Montgomery, principal analyst of the fibre optics group at ElectroniCast. Montgomery adds that, due to the continuing deployment of fibre optic cable assemblies in datacentres, and on-going deployment of Fibre-to- the-Home (FTTH) systems, as well as other optical fibre deployments, the need for easy-to-use, rugged/durable and accurate fibre optic preparation and termination devices is increasing. Stephen Montgomery has specialized in photonics and fiber optic components market and technology forecasting since 1990. He is president for International Business Expansion at ElectroniCast, and director of the Fiber Optics Components group and the LED Market Research group.
According to fibre optics communications market and technology forecast firm ElectroniCast Consultants, the global quantity of selected optical fibre splice preparation instrument/machine units shipped reached 235,400 units in 2017. Of the total, the Asia Pacific (APAC) region consumed 113,600 new instrument/machine units, constituting over 48% of the market. These figures are from ElectroniCast Consultants’ annual study of the use of selected cleavers, strippers and multiple-
market share, both in terms of volume/quantity and value. At present China, the Republic of Korea and Japan are the leading consumers of these fibre optic instrument/machine units in the region. However, India is fast making up ground, and is acknowledged as a rapid adopter of optical fibre communication technologies. “Field-installable fibre optic connectors, fusion splice use, and other optical fibre preparation processing tasks are driving the need for accurate fibre preparation and cleaving,” says Stephen
function (cleave/strip/clean) instruments/machines for the purpose of optical fibre splicing preparation
processing. Items not Included in the market
forecast data are: cleaver or stripper functions, which are integrated (non-detachable) with other device/equipment such as a fusion splice machine; equipment that has a total weight of more than 8 kg (17.6 lbs), as well as stripper/cleaver “tools” (shears, nippers, scissors, and “Pen” Scribes). The study predicts that the APAC region will maintain its leadership role in relative
Chorus to trial new optical wavelength services using Nokia service assurance and commissioning solution
New think tank aims to revive ‘Silicon Glen ’
A collective called T@CST, consisting of academics,
industrialists, funding bodies and government has been launched with the aim of restoring central Scotland’s reputation as a centre for the photonics industry. Speaking at the opening of a new extension to Compound Silicon Technology’s III-V facility in Glasgow, CEO Neil Martin said the current photonics industry opportunity is a modern-day gold rush, likely to peak during 2019 and stressed how critical the photonics industry will be to the UK economy and GDP over the next ten years. Carol Monaghan MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Photonics and a Member of the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee said, “Across Scotland, photonics currently provides employment for around 3,000 people. Laser sales are in excess of £200 million per annum and 90% of those sales are exports. It enables other industries to be competitive and 10% of UK jobs depend on it.” Martin added, “We plan to facilitate a collective voice for photonics companies in Scotland through the T@CST think-tank.”
Nokia has announced that New Zealand operator Chorus will be trialling its wavelength services solution for on-demand assurance and fulfilment of Layer 1 services. Chorus’ Auckland trial of the Nokia solution is part of the carrier’s “One Open Access Network Infrastructure” vision - an open platform fromwhich it can accelerate the monetisation of its infrastructure by offering fibre access, transport services, premiumco-location and network hubs. The solution under trial is compliant with the emerging MEF standard for L1 subscriber services and will enable Chorus to offer new standards-based optical services to service providers. Due to their high capacity, low latency, and inherent security, Layer 1 connectivity services are increasingly popular with large enterprises and governments migrating more and more IT operations to the cloud. Standardization of these services simplifies the fulfilment and assurance, and facilitates end-to-end orchestration in open, multi- vendor environments. Nokia’s wavelength services solution enables service providers to rapidly deploy on-demand, fully instrumented, standards- based L1 services. It includes the compact
and carrier class Nokia 1830 Photonic Service Demarcation (PSD) for customer premises functions, while open software tools provide the service provider and its customers with rich service assurance reporting capabilities. Ewen Powell, CTO at Chorus, said: “Chorus is looking forward to trialling the Nokia wavelength services solution. With its support for compact demarcation devices and end-customer portal access to fully instrumented service assurance dashboards and reports, we believe that solutions like this will further advance our service offer and put more network control in the hands of our service providers.” Sam Bucci, head of optical networks for Nokia, said: “Our strategy for optical wavelength services, combined with open assurance and fulfilment tools, perfectly aligns with Chorus’ wholesale strategy. Our partnership is founded on this shared vision, and we look forward to trialling this first-of-its-kind solution, which has the potential to open up an entirely different approach to wholesaling optical wavelength services, especially with the imminent release of the new MEF standard.”
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| ISSUE 13 | Q2 2018
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