Paul Wright, Research Manager, BT, UK
Title: Re-architecting metro and aggregation networks with coherent interfaces for beyond 5G
Whilst coherent interfaces have been in use in core networks for the past ten years supporting 100G+ circuits, the bandwidths on metro and aggregation networks have been small enough to continue using direct detect interfaces. As traffic from fixed-line broadband and 5G mobile services continues to grow, they are now approaching levels where coherent optics need to be considered along with the optical architectures to support this increased traffic. At the same time technologies coming from datacentres such as 400ZR and 400ZR+, as well as innovative solutions such as XR point-to-multipoint optics are offering more cost-effective coherent options for network carriers. This tutorial will look at the array of options now becoming available to network operators both in terms of the optical interfaces and the optical line systems to support the ever-growing demand for bandwidth.
Donna O’Shea, Munster Technological University (MTU)
Title: Security challenges and opportunities in Software Defined Networks (SDN)
Software Defined Networking (SDN) provides both security advantages and introduce new security threats and challenges. In terms of advantages, the separation of data and control planes of networking devices enables the logically centralised controller to collect network state information, information of which is leveraged by algorithms to optimise and manage flows in response to changing network conditions i.e. under attack. Although SDN has the potential to enhance the security of a network, the SDN architecture itself introduces new security challenges that need to be considered. These security challenges include access control, communication security, controller performance, control plane fault tolerance, network topology poisoning and policy violation. In this tutorial, the main opportunities for SDN as a security enabler will be explored, in addition to the main SDN security challenges and attacks in an SDN environment.
S. J. Ben Yoo, Distinguished Professor, University of California Davis
Title: Photonic Switching Technologies, Architectures, and Integrated-Systems for Future Disaggregated and Optically Reconfigurable Data Centers
This tutorial will cover photonic switching technologies, switch-fabric architectures, and integrated-photonic switching systems for future computing and data center applications. We will first discuss the benefits that photonic switching can bring to computing and data systems. Then we will cover various photonic switching architectures, technologies, and resulting systems. We will compare their scalability, throughput, latency, energy-efficiency, and system-wide impacts on data centers. The tutorial will conclude by discussing the challenges of cross-layer issues in hardware-software integration in data centers.