April marks the start of spring in many parts of the world, symbolizing the start of warm weather and new growth. Following this theme, the April Newsletter highlights the growth of FTTx (Fiber To The Home, Curb, Premises, etc.). As the demand for communications bandwidth expands, optical fiber is making its way closer to the end user throughout the world. We present three articles about FTTx systems this month. Dr. André Girard of EXFO Canada has written a nice overview of where FTTx is going throughout the world. Dr. Gerlas van den Hoven of Genexis in the Netherlands provides perspective on FTTH networks in Europe. Prof. Chi Wai Chow and colleagues from ITRI and National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan describe FTTH networks in Taiwan. We hope that you will find this series of articles to be timely and informative.
We also continue our series of commentaries by LEOS Leaders with an insightful column by IEEE Life Fellow Dr. Ivan Kaminow. Many readers will be familiar with his work and will surely find his experiences to be of interest. A short preview of the Photonics North Conference to be held in Montreal, Canada in June and a summary of the recent IDRS conference are also included this month.
As always, please feel free to send any comments and suggestions to k.parameswaran@ieee.org. I would love to hear what you would like to see in future issues.
Krishnan Parameswaran