Towards 2020 – Photonics driving economic growth in Europe

22 Towards 2020 – Photonics driving economic growth in Europe
Emerging paradigms, such as
‘software-defined photonics’,
underpin the need for
consolidation of networks
and systems with the underlying
photonic components.
increasingly dynamic and flexible eco-system, there
is a growing need for smarter and more reconfigurable
photonic components. Emerging paradigms,
such as ‘software-defined photonics’, underpin
the need for consolidation of networks and systems
with the underlying photonic components.
Introducing functionality along this trend tends to
increase component complexity, which in turn exacerbates
the cost of design, fabrication and testing
necessary for the development of a new product or
technology. To circumvent this challenge, it is necessary
to capitalise and invest on existing platforms,
such as EUROPRACTICE and FIRE, and to expand
other mature and value-adding initiatives, such
as ePIXfab, ACTMOST and EUROFOS, into new
platforms. The goal here is two-fold: (i) to offer
specialised facilities and expertise over the whole
range of the value chain, namely from photonic
system design and prototyping through to testing,
so as to translate R&D results into innovative
products, and (ii) to connect the value chain of
photonics with other value chains within the ICT
ecosystems, such as embedded systems, complementary
telecommunication technologies, networks
of the future, future Internet, and flagships.
To boost Europe’s competitive advantages, elements
of the value creation chain, ranging from
research through the building of products,
have to be synchronised. In this context, it is
proposed that already existing organisations,
networks and platforms are embedded into a
new streamlined value creation chain through
the creation of the following specific European
platforms, each characterised by a set of welldefined
functions and interfaces:
EuroLab – European Photonics Laboratory:
The EuroLab is a federation of academia, research
institutes and industry that pool their joint expertise.
To cover the whole value chain, there will be
be networking, systems, and component/subsystems
groups. Industrial partners can pose questions
and raise study items that are then subsequently
investigated by smaller teams. Topics will include
forward-looking product ideas, technical feasibility
studies, open questions in standards, and research
requests to continue feeding the innovation cycle
5 to 10 years ahead. The evaluations will be theoretical,
simulations, lab experiments or a mixture.
The process for this must be lightweight and must
guarantee commercial confidentiality, although it
is expected that the majority of results will subsequently
be made available publicly, and will also
form the basis of on-going technology roadmapping.
This can be seen as an evolution of a Network
of Excellence, where there is funding for the academic
partners to address the study items set by
industry partners.
EuroSaP – European Photonics Specification and
Prototyping: To date, EC projects have comprised
largely of precompetitive research carried out by
independent parties. While this has helped to build
up knowledge (and some IP), commercialisation
of the results has been limited, and the results are
largely uncoordinated or at best complementary.
A mind-set change is required with respect to the
focus of these activities: more people from the
product side need to be involved, to ensure the
necessary upfront agreement on joint product solutions.
An industry consortium-driven approach
will be necessary to agree such a common framework
for future product solutions and to define
the specification of the constituting components.
Partners across the whole value chain will be involved,
from network operators, to system, optical
subsystem, component and ASIC vendors. The
individual consortium composition will of course be
dependent on the specific project. Differentiation
is possible by customisation of the components
and/or the way in which such solutions would be
used in a network/system context. An example
of a successful agreement on a worldwide scale
is the 100G long-haul multi-source agreement
group in the OIF, which has demonstrated the
effectiveness of such an approach. EuroSap will
work independently or liaise with other groups (e.g.