Optical Networks: The Road Ahead

Progress on research and development in optical networks will be discussed in this talk. Some emerging important topics include hybrid optical-wireless access, long-reach broadband access, dynamic optical circuit switching, robust network design, Ethernet everywhere, etc. It is challenging to write about the authors' Research and Development (R&D) priorities on optical networks. However, they all know the need for appropriate technologies and engineering solutions to meet the growing bandwidth needs of their information society with emerging applications such as Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), distributed multi-player network games, peer-to-peer applications, etc.