How are universities and other academic research facilities keeping their networks at advanced levels to aid their research work and run their businesses? Attendees at next week’s Internet2 Fall Member Meeting are going to find out. 
Optelian’s CTO, Sheldon Walklin, will be one of the drivers of that network conversation, and he’ll be talking about Next-Generation ROADMs. In case you’re wondering what a ROADM is, it’s a Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer. In case that didn’t explain it, a ROADM is a piece of optical communications equipment that allows a network operator to switch different colors of wavelengths and send them in different directions at different points in the network. That’s really important when you have complex ring configurations in a metro or regional network with lots of different-colored wavelengths, with lots of feeder networks connecting in and out and needing to go in different directions to get to their destinations.
Walklin will focus his remarks on how next-gen ROADMs will evolve to enable increased flexibility. He’ll also touch on how ROADMs will support super-fast bit rates beyond 100 gigabits/second. Finally, he’ll touch on control plane and the role of OpenFlow and software-defined networking as research networks prepare for the next stage in their evolution.
Walklin will deliver his presentation as part of the “Emerging Technologies in Optical Transport Networks” panel on Monday, Oct. 1 from 4.30-5.30 pm.
If you can’t attend the Internet2 Fall Member Meeting yourself, you can follow the meeting on Twitter under hashtag #I2FMM12. Optelian will be tweeting from the event – you can follow them on Twitter under @Optelian.
Internet2’s Fall Member Meeting will take place in Philadelphia at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel at 201 North 17th Street. Tweet us @Optelian to connect at the event.
