New challenges and directions in optical networks
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New challenges and directions in optical networks
Wed, 31/05/2017 - 13:00 to 14:00
Location:
Speaker:
Andrew Lord
Affiliation:
BT (British Telecom)
Synopsis:
Optical transmission has dominated world-wide communications since the 1980s, and bandwidths have grown rapidly since then, with multi Tb/s rates now supported in national and international networks together with a renewed ambition to see fibre connected all the way to consumers and businesses. This talk will review the fibre landscape, covering some history but focusing on immediate and future challenges for the telecommunications industry. The talk will be wide ranging, including Passive Optical Networks, metro and core optical transmission challenges, the impact of 5G, Software Defined Networking control and quantum security.
Biography:
Andrew joined BT in 1985 after a BA in Physics from Oxford University. He has helped design a wide range of optical network systems and technologies, including long haul subsea and terrestrial DWDM networks. He has been responsible for optical fibre and systems specifications. He currently leads BT’s optical core and access research including optical access, high speed transmission, Software Defined Networking and Quantum Communications. He has recently initiated BT’s quantum research, with applications in areas such as secure communications, timing and sensing. He regularly speaks at conferences, sits on several organising committees, including ECOC and was Technical Program Chair for OFC 2015 and will be General Chair for OFC 2017. He is an associate Editor of Journal of Optical Communications and Networking (JOCN), is Visiting Professor at Essex University, Senior Member of the IEEE and a Chartered Engineer with the IET. He is industrial chair of NDFIS (National Dark Fibre Infrastructure).