The 19th annual meeting of FNCA (Fiber Network Council ASAP, formerly FTTH Association Asia Pacific Branch) was held in EDSA Shangri-La, Manila, Philippines on November 5. With nearly 200 attendees, more than 20 wonderful speeches from industry leaders from the Philippines and around the world, more than 10 exhibitors such as Corning, Senko, EXFO, Sumitomo, ZTE, and YOFC, it is a very successful event. The Philippine Secretary of Information and Communications Industries also attended the event in the morning.
Due to scheduling issues, I missed the morning presentation. When I arrived at the venue，Dr. Shoichi Hanatani, a veteran of the optical communications industry in Japan (from Hitachi to Sanwa), former Chairman of FNCA and current Director and Vice Chairman, was moderating the session about FTTx. Panelists included Dr. Naoya Wada of NICT, Japan, Dr. Antonio Teixeira, Founder of AdvancedPIC Europe, and Dr. Bernd Hesse, Executive Vice President of Lambda Networks, Inc. Although the topic was FTTx, their discussion was more like a discussion of the entire frontier of optical communication technology. Dr. Wada pointed out that relying on MMF/MCF, SDM, UWB and other technologies, the capacity recording of optical communication has reached 23Pbps (22.9 million Gbps), the spectral efficiency has reached 1100bit/s/Hz, and there are candidate technologies such as OAM and hollow-core fiber in the future. After the meeting, the editor approached Dr. Wada and asked him about the prospects for applying these technologies to the field of AI. He told the editor, at least his research group is very interested, that advanced fiber optic technology can not only greatly increase the density of optical interconnects, but also make it easier to achieve higher transmission rates, although cost is an issue now. It is a very interesting topic whether the PIC chip can be combined with the PON industry to replace the current BOSA, and the PIC can be more functional and smaller in size. Dr. Hesse's topic is OpenODN. Their product can support various PON modes, allow customers to seamlessly work in various PON architectures. Dr. Hesse told the editor that this is what OpenODN means, and that their products have been deployed in many parts of Europe and the United States. It seems that even passive ODN field can be very innovative.
The next session focused on the Philippine optical communications market, with presentations by the three major Philippine operators, PLDT, Converge, Globe Telecom, and submarine cable operator Infinivan, followed by presentations from ZTE and Ribbon Telecom (formerly ECI) on equipment. A few more impressive points are that the Philippines wants to build a super data center (VITRO project), the Philippines wants to become a submarine cable hub in the Pacific Ocean, and ZTE already has a local data center, Ribbon's 5nm 140Gbaud technology. Editors check out the agenda, and the morning presentations also included Converge Telecom, Myre Indonesia, Nokia Bell Labs, and many more. Guests, enterprises and customers gathered together, showing the vigorous development of the Asian optical communication market.
From FTTx to fiber connectivity, FNCA's annual meeting is a silhouette of Asia's optical communication industry and the hope for the future development of Asia's optical communications.
Say goodbye to Manila and welcome CFCF Southeast Asia in Bangkok, see you in Bangkok.
