Technologies for Future Optical Access Networks

Fady El-Nahal

Department of Electrical Engineering
Islamic University of Gaza

Abstract:

The rapid growth in Internet traffic is continuing to fuel the penetration of fiber networks into the access network section. Future access networks will have to meet the ever increasing demand. Fiber to-the-home (FTTH) networks based on Passive optical networks (PONs) systems have been widely deployed to fully support “triple-play” services including data, voice, and video. Wavelength-division-multiplexing passive optical networks (WDM/PONs), which offer point-to-point connectivity via a dedicated wavelength to each customer, are expected to provide the optimum FTTH architecture. WDM-PONs are an attractive option due to their high capacity, easy management, network security, protocol and bit rate transparency, and easy upgradability. However, the network complexity and cost have been the most critical issues for the practical deployment. To overcome this problem, current research is focusing on increasing the operating speed and maximum reach (or splitting ratio) of WDM PON cost-effectively.

Biography:

Fady El-Nahal is an Associate Professor with the department of Electrical Engineering at the Islamic University of Gaza, Palestine. He received his MPhil. degree in Microelectronic Engineering & semiconductor physics and his Ph.D degree in Optical Communications Engineering from the University of Cambridge, UK. He is a fellow of the Cambridge overseas society and he is currently the chairman of the Oxford and Cambridge Society of Palestine. His research interests are in the area of Multi-wavelength fiber optic networks. He is a recipient of the Georg Forster Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.