Raul Muñoz, head of the Packet Optical Network and Services Research Unit at CTTC co-organized the workshop entitled: “Are multi-band optical networks simple extensions of traditional C-band networks?” at the 48th European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC) held in Basel (Switzerland), on September 18th. The workshop was composed of nine technical presentations and two panels addressing the state-of-the art and future trends of multi-band devices and technologies. It discussed when and where multi-band networks are expected to be introduced first, including the operators’ strategies regarding the adoption of multi-band networks. The workshop also discussed what the implications of the availability of multi-band are, including redesign of the end-to-end architecture(s), multi-band switching technologies and SDN control, beyond traditional approaches. It was organized in two sessions of 90 minutes each, involving major vendors and operators of telecommunications networks (Telecom Italia Lab, Nokia, ADVA Optical Networking, British Telecom, Fujitsu, Infinera, and Telecom Infra Project).
