OFC: After the aliens, a decade to rewire the Earth

At the OFC 2025 Rump Session, held in San Francisco, three teams were set a weighty challenge. If a catastrophic event—a visit by aliens —caused the destruction of the global telecommunications network, how would each team’s ‘superheroes’ go about designing the replacement network? What technologies would they use? And what issues must be considered?

 Source: Team A

The Rump Session tackled a provocative thought experiment. If the Earth's entire communication infrastructure vanished overnight, how would the teams go about rebuilding it?

Twelve experts - eleven from industry and one academic - were split into three teams.

The teams were given ten years to build their vision network. A decade was chosen as it is a pragmatic timescale and would allow the teams to consider using emerging technologies.

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BT’s first quantum key distribution network

The trial of a commercial quantum-secured metro network has started in London.

Professor Andrew Lord

The BT network enables customers to send data securely between sites by first sending encryption keys over optical fibre using a technique known as quantum key distribution (QKD).

The attraction of QKD is that any attempt to eavesdrop and intercept the keys being sent is discernable at the receiver.

The network uses QKD equipment and key management software from Toshiba while the trial also involves EY, the professional services company.

EY is using BT’s network to connect two of its London sites and will showcase the merits of QKD to its customers.

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Making optical networking feel like cycling downhill

BT’s chief architect, Neil McRae, is a fervent believer in the internet, a technology built on the continual progress of optical networking. He discussed both topics during his invited talk at the recent OFC 2021 virtual conference and exhibition.

Neil McRae’s advocacy of the internet as an educational tool for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds stems from his childhood experiences.

Neil McRae

“When I was a kid, I lived in a deprived area and the only thing that I could do was go to the library,” says McRae, chief architect and managing director for architecture and technology strategy at BT.

His first thought on discovering the internet was just how much there was to read.

“If I’m honest, everything I’ve learnt in technology has been pretty much self-taught,” says McRae.

This is why he so values the internet. It has given him a career where he has travelled widely and worked with talented and creative people.

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BT takes a deep dive into hollow-core fibre

BT has been experimenting with hollow-core fibre to understand how it could benefit its network. The results are promising.

Professor Andrew Lord“We are looking at all the use cases and it is a bit early to say which one is the killer one but they are all interesting,” says Professor Andrew Lord, BT’s head of optical network research.

“There are so many parameters [of hollow-core fibre] and all seem to be slightly or vastly better than single-mode fibre,” says Neil Parkin, optical networks research manager at BT.

The service provider is working with hollow-core fibre start-up, Lumenisity, and 5G software networking specialist, Mavenir.

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