Packaging silicon photonics using passive alignment

• An Israeli start-up is tackling a key packaging challenge for silicon photonics

Teramount has developed a way to simplify the packaging of silicon photonics chips. Instead of using active alignment whereby an external laser is required to carefully align a fibre to the optical die, the Israeli start-up has developed a technology that allows passive alignment.  

Hesham Taha“If we want silicon photonics to ramp up to volume, it has to meet CMOS standards both in terms of fabrication and packaging,” says Hesham Taha, Teramount's CEO.

Taha worked at a company developing atomic force microscopy systems before co-founding Teramount. "We got to know of the problem of injecting light into a waveguide and were surprised that the industry was still using active alignment," he says.

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What the cable operators are planning for NFV and SDN

Cable operators may be quieter than the telecom operators about network functions virtualisation (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) but what they are planning is no less ambitious.

Cable operators are working on adding wireless to their fixed access networks using NFV and SDN technologies.

Don Clarke“Cable operators are now every bit as informed about NFV and SDN as the telcos are, but they are not out there talking too much about it,” says Don Clarke, principal architect for network technologies at CableLabs, the R&D organisation serving the cable operators.

Clarke is well placed to comment. While at BT, he initiated the industry collaboration on NFV and edited the original white paper which introduced the NFV concept and outlined the operators’ vision for NFV. 

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Giving telecom networks a computing edge

Operators have long sought to provide their users with a consistent quality of service. For cellular it is why ubiquitous cellular coverage is important, for example.

But a subtler approach is taking hold as networks evolve whereby what a user does will change depending on their location. And what will enable this is edge computing.

 Source: Senza-Fili Consulting

“This is an entirely new concept,” says Monica Paolini, president and founder at Senza-Fili Consulting. “It is a way to think about service which is going to have a profound impact.”

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ETSI embraces AI to address rising network complexity

The growing complexity of networks is forcing telecom operators and systems vendors to turn to machine intelligence for help. It has led the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, ETSI, to set up an industry specification group to define how artificial intelligence (AI) can be applied to networking.

 “With the advent of network functions virtualisation and software-defined networking, we can see the eventuality that network management is going to get very much more complicated,” says Ray Forbes, convenor of the ETSI Industry Specification Group, Experimental Network Intelligence (ISG-ENI).

Source: ETSI

The AI will not just help with network management, he says, but also with the introduction of services and the more efficient use of network resources.

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BT bolsters research in quantum technologies

BT is increasing its investment in quantum technologies. “We have a whole team of people doing quantum and it is growing really fast,” says Andrew Lord, head of optical communications at BT.

The UK incumbent is working with companies such as Huawei, ADVA Optical Networking and ID Quantique on quantum cryptography, used for secure point-to-point communications. And in February, BT joined the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), and will work with Facebook and other TIP members at BT Labs in Adastral Park and at London’s Tech City. Quantum computing is one early project.

Andrew LordThe topics of quantum computing and data security are linked. The advent of quantum computers promises the break the encryption schemes securing data today, while developments in quantum cryptography coupled with advances in mathematics promise new schemes resilient to the quantum computer threat.

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Infinera inches closer to cognitive networking

Part 2: Infinera’s Instant Network

The second and final part as to how optical networking is becoming smarter

Infinera says it has made it easier for operators to deploy optical links to accommodate traffic growth.

The system vendor says its latest capability, known as Instant Network, also paves the way for autonomous networks that will predict traffic trends and enable capacity as required.

The latest announcement builds on Infinera’s existing Instant Bandwidth feature, introduced in 2012, that uses its photonic integrated circuit (PIC) technology.

Instant Bandwidth exploits the fact that all five 100-gigabit wavelengths of a line card hosting Infinera’s 500-gigabit PIC are lit even though an operator may only need a subset of the 100-gigabit wavelengths. Using Instant Bandwidth, extra capacity can be added to a link - until all five wavelengths are used - in a matter of hours.

The technology allows 100-gigabit wavelengths to be activated in minutes, says Geoff Bennett, director, solutions and technology at Infinera (pictured). It takes several hours due to the processing time for the operator to raise a purchasing order for the new capacity and get it signed off.

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Real-time visibility makes optical networking smarter

Part 1: Ciena's Liquid Spectrum

Systems vendors are making optical networks smarter. Their latest equipment, combining intelligent silicon and software hooks, can measure the status of the network and enable dynamic network management.

Ciena recently announced its Liquid Spectrum networking product while Infinera has launched its Instant Network. Both vendors exploit the capabilities of their latest generation coherent DSPs to allow greater network automation and efficiency. The vendors even talk about their products being an important step towards autonomous or cognitive networks.

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