HISTORIC Roadmap for Broadband Optical Internet Access Towards 10GBit/s Everywhere

In all of the studies carried out so far on the implementation of broadband optical internet access, few have carried the vision as far as the objective of the Photonics21 competition, “10Gigabit/s everywhere”. The partners in this project, who represent the majority of interested parties in the UK, will carry out a focused road-mapping study, with the aim of identifying promising routes forward in achieving the ambitious goals of Photonics21, while making best use of the existing knowledge that has been gained in earlier projects, which is not always in a form that is simple to apply in the present context. We will seek the solutions which show most promise of cost effectiveness, are future proof (i.e. allowing bandwidth evolution and infrastructure reuse) and allow simple interfaces which can be standardized. This task will demand a high degree of innovation, facilitated by the vertically integrated consortium structure. The results of the study will be made available to UK industry in order to maximize the opportunities for the UK in the next stage of development, which will be conducted under the FP7 and ERANET+ schemes, leading ultimately to commercial leadership in the world market for next-generation optical internet access systems.Amélie