Short bio: Alan Willner (Ph.D., Columbia) has worked at AT&T Bell Labs and Bellcore, and is Prof. of EE at USC. He received the NSF Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the White House, Packard Foundation Fellowship, Fulbright Senior Scholars Award, and Eddy Paper Award. Prof. Willner was IEEE LEOS President, General Co-Chair of CLEO, and Editor-in-Chief of IEEE/OSA J. Lightwave Technology and OSA Optics Letters. He has 750 publications.

Abstract: Optical communications has enjoyed dramatic growth in terms of technical achievement as well as commercial implementation. This presentation will highlight three main topics.  Firstly, a broad perspective will be given on some of the technical trends in optical communication systems.  Secondly, I will describe technical issues related to stable, robust optical networking, including performance monitoring, channel-degrading effects, efficient modulation formats, and switching. Finally, I will discuss adding flexibility and reconfigurability to different aspects of the base optical technologies.