Fire destroys part of research center
A major fire at the Highfield Campus at Southampton University (Southampton, England) partially destroyed the Mountbatten Building, which houses research laboratories and offices for the Optoelectronics Research Centre and the School of Electronics and Computer Science.
“This is a huge loss to the University and the fire has destroyed one of our key research facilities of international importance, supporting groups in both Electronics and Computer Science and the Optoelectronics Research Centre,” said university secretary and registrar, John Lauwerys.
The Optoelectronics Research Centre was established in 1989 by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. It is one of the largest and most successful photonics groups in Europe, comprising more than 60 state-of-the-art laboratories and more than 120 research staff.
Ericsson to acquire Marconi telecom assets
Ericsson (Stockholm, Sweden) announced an agreement with Marconi (London, England) to acquire parts of its telecommunications business that are strategically important to Ericsson, including Marconi’s optical networking, broadband, softswitch, and data networking equipment and telecommunications services business, as well as the Marconi trademark and associated brand names. Marconi headquarters and certain businesses in the U.K. and Germany are not part of the acquisition.
According to Ericsson, the agreement strengthens its position in the accelerating transmission segment and next-generation converging networks. Marconi’s transmission offerings, especially in optical systems, will combine with Ericsson’s microwave radio position and worldwide sales organization.
Report predicts dark fiber will grow 15% per year
Central and Eastern European dark-fiber markets will see growth of 15% per annum over the next five years, according to a new report from BroadGroup (London, England). In the report, European Dark Fibre Markets, the forecast growth (by fiber km) from 2005 to 2010 for Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe, is approximately 60%. As a result, the share of dark fiber in the emerging markets as a proportion of the whole of Europe will grow from the current level of 27% (end 2005) to around 50% by 2010.
OIF looks at 100 Gbit/s and beyond
Members of the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF; Fremont, CA) met in Brussels to begin work on defining requirements for future intrasystem interfaces. The OIF’s Physical Layer User Group has begun work on specifications for ultra-high-data-rate interfaces, including 100, 120, and 160 Gbit/s, that will enable a higher density than the organization’s current Common Electrical Interface (CEI).
“Our members are seeing exponential growth in data traffic and a corresponding demand for higher bandwidth,” said Karl Gass of Sandia National Laboratories, chair of the OIF Physical Layer User Group. “Forward-looking companies need to identify requirements for their next generation of products, three to five years down the road.”
Niagara Falls gets air-blown fiber
Sumitomo Electric Lightwave (Research Triangle Park, NC) has successfully installed its FutureFLEX air-blown fiber infrastructure for communication links between border towns and the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge, the fourth busiest commercial border crossing between the U.S. and Canada.
Representatives from The Niagara Falls Bridge Commission (NFBC) say that the FutureFLEX system was chosen over conventional fiberoptic backbone because the air-blown fiber infrastructure better complies with the Border Hardening provisions of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
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Also in the news . . .
Optical Entertainment Network (OEN) selected Alloptic (Livermore, CA) to deploy Alloptic’s Gigabit Ethernet Passive Optical Network (GEPON) for Internet Protocol (IP) video services to a million residents of Houston, TX. . . . The Light Brigade (Tukwila, WA) was awarded a contract from the General Services Administration (GSA) to provide fiberoptic training and training materials to the federal government. . . . LovaLite (Troyes, France) was awarded the Bronze Photon by the French Agency for Photonics and Optics Industry for its micro tip in polymer adapted at the end of a microstructured optical fiber developed by Perfos (Lannion, France), which enhances light transmission in high-speed networks. . . . ADVA (Martinsried/Munich, Germany and Mahwah, NJ) announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire all material assets in Covaro Networks (Richardson, TX), an Ethernet solutions company. . . . In a multimillion dollar agreement, Exfo (Quebec City, Canada) was selected by Deutsche Telekom as sole-source supplier for all fiber deployment applications. . . . SBC Communications will adopt AT&T as its name following completion of its acquisition of AT&T, which is expected in late 2005.