IEEE GLOBECOM 2005 Workshop, WO 3


Title: The Sixth International Workshop on Optical Networking Technologies

Duration: Friday, 2 December 9:00AM-12:00 Noon
Location: Majestic Ballroom A / Level Two / Renaissance Grand Hotel

Instructors: Tarek S. El-Bawab, Jackson State University, USA

Speakers:
Mark E. Alle
Shoichiro Asano
Scott Beaudoin
Tarek S. El-Bawab
Gigi Karmous-Edwards
Ron Mackey
Christian Todorov
Luca Valcarenghi

Description:

Optical Cross-Connects are widely regarded as cornerstone of the optical layer and next generation transport networks. They are in charge of provisioning, management, and restoration of lightpaths and topologies to serve the communication needs of numerous client layers. By the turn of the century, optical networking was in a period of high growth and optical-switching based OXCs were already undergoing several field trials in carrier networks. The downturn of the telecommunications industry has put this progress on hold. Nevertheless, OXCs started to be deployed in national and international research and education networking initiative. Examples of progressive optical networking initiatives in this regards include the National LambdaRail (USA), the international Global Lambda Integrated Facility (GLIF), OptIPuter   (US), SuperSINET (Japan), TransLight (US/Europe), Internet2, and others. Up to 320?320 optical switching systems are use today. Nevertheless, this progress in scientific initiatives has not been matched so far by commercial deployment in carrier networks.
In this workshop, we discuss the present and future of optical cross-connects. The workshop will include a mix of industrial and academic presentation and will discuss progress made in optical cross-connect technologies, applications, and deployment, both in cutting-edge scientific initiatives and in carriers' networks.

Biographies

Mark E. Allen is the Director of Systems Engineering at Infinera. He provides customers with architecture and applications engineering support. Previously he was co-founder of Valiant Networks, a company offering network engineering, testing and NOC services. Mark was also Director of Network Architecture for WilTel where he was responsible for the design and technology planning of the nationwide DWDM transport and data backbone. He has been an Adjunct Electrical Engineering Professor at SMU, Oklahoma State University, and San Jose State. Mark has been active in industry groups including the OIF, ODSI, IETF and ATM Forum and has been a frequent speaker at SuperComm, NGN, OFC, NFOEC and other industry gatherings. Mark received a PhD and MS in Electrical Engineering from Oklahoma State University and a BSEE from Kansas University. Mark is a Senior Member of IEEE and a member of HKN.

Shoichiro Asano had graduated at Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo, in 1970. He Received ME and DE, both from University of Tokyo, in 1972 and 1975 respectively. Dr. Asano is a Director and Professor, Infrastructure Systems Research Division, National Institute of Informatics (NII) and a Professor, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, University of Tokyo. His current researches are mainly focused on optical network architecture and development of next-generation network.

Scott Beaudoin has more than 22 years of experience in architectural framework, detailed design, and operational oversight of global communications networks. In his current role as the Chief Technologist, he and his team develop the underlying technology that supports WilTel Communications’ robust set of data, voice, IP and video transport solutions. Scott is also responsible for enabling WilTel to deliver more cost-effective services to its customers by engineering the network for optimal efficiency and creating and identifying new capabilities that reduce costs and deliver customers more effective wide-area network solutions. Finally, Scott and his team provide thought leadership for WilTel through participation in numerous industry standards bodies and forums. Prior to joining WilTel, Scott served as the Chief Network Architect for MasterCard International, Inc. In that position, he was responsible for providing strategic technical direction, product development, and vendor relationship management for MasterCard’s global financial network, Banknet, one of the world’s largest private communications networks. Prior to MasterCard, Scott held several technical positions in locations throughout the world while serving as a communications specialist in the U.S. Army. In these positions, he worked on the Defense Communications Agency’s global network and gained experience in broadband transport systems, data and voice switching systems, secured communications technologies, as well as computer processing platforms and fixed plant engineering. Scott is a graduate of Webster University in St. Louis, where he earned a bachelor’s degree with honors in management and a minor in computer science. He lives in St. Louis with his wife and four children.

Tarek S. El-Bawab is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Engineering, Jackson State University, USA. His areas of interest include optical networks and WDM, network architectures, performance analysis, and next-generation switching/routing. He has more than 22 years of experience in communication systems and networks. Prior to Jackson State, he was with Alcatel USA where he served as the project manager of the optical networking project of the Network Strategy Group (NSG). Before this, he was in optical-networking and WDM research for eight years with a number of institutions: Alcatel-USA Research & Innovation (Corporate Research Center), the Department of Electrical Engineering at Colorado State University (USA) and the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering at the University of Essex (UK). Prior to this he was system design engineer with Dar Al-Handasah Consultants (Cairo head office) and telecommunication lead engineer in Greater Cairo Metro project, where he was in charge of network design and implementation. Dr El-Bawab has more than 50 publications and patents in the field of optical networking. His book “Optical Switching” is the most comprehensive scientific resource in its subject. He serves as member of technical committees, and as organizer and chair of a number of IEEE/SPIE conferences/workshops. He is Senior IEEE member and member of the IEEE communication, computer, electron device, Lasers and Electro-Optics and engineering management societies. He has a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, and a B.A. in History, from Ain Shams University, Egypt. He holds an M.Sc. in Telecommunications and Information Systems from the University of Essex, U.K, and an M.Sc. in Solid State Science from the American University in Cairo. He obtained his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University.

Gigi Karmous-Edwards is a Principal Scientist at MCNC Grid Computing and Network Services (GCNS) where her research focus is on novel optical control plane technologies and their role in Grid Computing. Chair of “Control Plane and Grid Integration” working group of Global Lambda Infrastructure Facilities (GLIF) organization. She is currently the chair of GridNets 2005, workshop on Grid related networking research (part of BroadNets). She organized and chaired two International workshops for “Optical Control Plane for the Grid Community,” which continues to meet and make progress in the area of optical control plane research. In her role, she initiates and leads collaborative research activities,
which focus on advance networking technologies for Grid computing, and has published several papers in that area. She recently was appointed Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at North Carolina State University, where she plans on teaching advanced classes on Network Management and Control Planes. She has been an invited guest speaker at several international conferences. She has spent the last fourteen years of her nineteen-year academic and industry R&D career in all disciplines of networking Control Planes and Network Management, including strong activity in standards work, system architecture for data communication systems, and software design for both embedded systems and management applications. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering, and her M.S. in Electrical Engineering, from NCSU. She is a member of IEEE society.

Ron Mackey is chief marketing officer and vice president of business development of Calient Networks. Prior to Calient, he led product planning and strategy for Tellabs’ North American product line and held various marketing, planning and product management positions within Tellabs' advanced optical groups. Mr. Mackey was previously chief technology officer for Osicom Technologies, as well as founder and president of Distributed Systems International, Inc. (DSI), an optical networking technology company acquired by Osicom Technologies in 1996. He started his telecommunications career with Bell Laboratories. Mr. Mackey holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Missouri-Rolla and an MS in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Christian Todorov is a network engineer for Internet2. He has been actively involved with the HOPI (Hybrid Optical Packet Infrastructure) project, the design of the next generation of Internet2’s Abilene network, and has operational managerial responsibility for the MANLAN (Manhattan Landing) exchange point. Christian is an active participant in FiberCo. FiberCo is a wholly owned subsidiary of Internet2, whose mission is to procure fiber for the R&E community at favorable rates. He has also designed and managed the installation of the networks supporting the semi-annual Internet2 member meetings. Christian has worked with Internet2 since 2002.

Luca Valcarenghi holds a Laurea degree in Electronics Engineering (1997) from the Politecnico di Torino, Italy, a M.S. in Electrical Engineering (1999), and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering-Telecommunications (2001) both from the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). Between January 2002 and August 2002 he was Research Associate of the Optical Networking Advanced Research (OpNeAR) Lab of the University of Texas at Dallas Erik Jonsson School of EE/CS. Since September 2002 he is Assistant Professor at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of University Studies and Doctoral Research of Pisa, Italy. Dr. Valcarenghi co-authored more than two dozen papers published in international journals and presented in leading international conferences. He is member of the IEEE and he has been part of the Organizing Committee and Technical
Program Committee of international conferences such as OptiComm2000, Optical Networking and Systems Symposium at IEEE Globecom 2003, and Optical Communication Networks and Systems Symposium at IEEE Globecom 2004. His main research interests are Optical Networks design, analysis, and optimization; Artificial Intelligence optimization techniques; Communication Networks reliability; IP over WDM networking; QoS in network infrastructures for Grid computing.