Video: Future, Flexible Hybrid Wireless/Optical Networks

The wireless and optical domains are being driven closer together, especially as cell sizes get smaller and coordinated transmission techniques become possible. In this interview, Dr. Leonid Kazovsky, Professor (Research) of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, discusses future network architecture and the integration between optical and wireless technology.


Some key topics covered in this interview:

0:00 Work underway on hybrid wireless/optical architecture at Stanford's Photonics and Networking Research Laboratory

4:00 Coordinated multi-point transmission schemes

4:50 Intelligence in the network or the base station?

7:20 Orchestrating users and capacity

08:59 Network Design and the Moving Target

12:00 Software-defined networking (SDN) and the hybrid wireless/optical challenge

13:32 Opportunities to improve energy efficiency in the network


Prof. Leonid G. Kazovsky joined Stanford University in 1990. He founded Photonics and Networking Research Laboratory (PNRL) at Stanford University and leads PNRL since establishing it in 1990. PNRL team includes some fifteen researchers focused on green (energy efficient) optical/wireless access and in-building networks.

Prior to joining Stanford, Prof. Kazovsky was with Bellcore doing research on coherent, WDM, high-speed and other advanced optical fiber communication systems (later, Bellcore changed its name to Telcordia, and was acquired by Ericsson). Prof. Kazovsky's research of coherent optical systems at that time resulted in what is widely considered key foundations of modern coherent systems.

While on Bellcore assignments or Stanford sabbaticals, Prof. Kazovsky worked at the Heinrich Hertz Institute, Berlin, Germany; Hewlett-Packard Research Laboratories, Bristol, England; Technical University of Eindhoven, Eindhoven, the Netherland; Scuola Superiore St. Anne, Pisa, Italy; Danish Technical University, Copenhagen, Denmark; and Acreo, Stockholm, Sweden.

Through research contracts, consulting engagements, and other arrangements, Prof. Kazovsky worked with many industrial companies and U.S. Government agencies including Corning, Alcatel-Lucent, Sprint, DT, Huawei, DEC, GTE, AT&T, IVP, Lucent, Hitachi, KDD, Furukawa, Fujitsu, Optivision, and Perimeter on the industrial side; and NSF, DARPA, Air Force, Navy, Army, and BMDO on the government side. He also worked extensively with many leading VCs and intellectual property law firms.

Prof. Kazovsky serves or served on Editorial Boards of leading journals (IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Wireless Networks) and on Program Committees of leading conferences (OFC, CLEO, LEOS, SPIE, and GLOBECOM). He also served as a reviewer for various IEEE and IEE Transactions, Proceedings, and Journals; funding agencies (NSF, OFC, ERC, NRC, etc.) and publishers (Wiley, MacMillan, etc.). Recently, Prof. Kazovsky organized several workshops on hybrid optical/wireless networks at OFC and WCNC; he also co-edited a Special Issue of the IEEE Network Magazine on Next Generation Optical Access Networks.

Prof. Kazovsky authored or co-authored three books, three book chapters, fifty five invited journal papers and invited conference talks, some 200 journal technical papers, and some 300 conference papers. His latest book, Broadband Optical Access Networks, was published by John Wiley & Sons in 2011.

Prof. Kazovsky is a Fellow of IEEE and a Fellow of OSA.