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 PUBLIC  NOTICE  Federal  Communications  Commission  445  12  th  St.,  S.  W.  Washington,  D.  C.  20554  News  Media  Information  202  /  418-  0500  Internet:  http://  www.  fcc.  gov  TTY:  1-  888-  835-  5322 
 DA  04-  2900  Released:  September  8,  2004 
 Tutorial  on  Optical  Network  Interoperability 
 On  September  24,  2004,  the  FCC’s  Office  of  Engineering  and  Technology  will  provide  a  tutorial  on  Optical  Network  Interoperability  from  10:  00  am  to  12:  00  noon  in  the  Commission  Meeting  Room  (TW-  C305),  445  12  th 
 Street,  S.  W.,  Washington,  D.  C. 
 The  evolution  of  the  Optical  Transport  Network  (OTN)  has  been  an  incremental  process,  and  this  has  resulted  in  a  heterogeneous  network  made  up  of  a  wide  variety  of  network  elements.  To  allow  flexibility  as  the  network 
 continues  to  evolve,  interoperability  is  required  at  many  levels  (i.  e.,  transport,  control  and  management).  The  tremendous  success  of  Synchronous  Optical  NETwork  (SONET)  can  be  attributed,  to  a  large  extent,  to  it  being  a 
 well-  standardized  transport  interface,  which  facilitated  interworking  among  vendor  platforms,  and  carrier  interfaces.  We  anticipate  that  a  similar  degree  of  interworking  will  be  achieved  for  the  evolving  OTN. 


 A  demonstration  by  the  Optical  Interoperability  Forum  (OIF)  at  Supercomm  2004  showcased  the  feasibility  of  interoperable  optical  control  plane  deployment.  These  capabilities  will  enable  carriers  to  rapidly  and  flexibly 
 provision  and  create  new  services,  streamlining  operational  and  capital  expenses  and  optimizing  their  existing  network  to  support  additional  revenue  streams. 


 This  tutorial  will  introduce  the  concept  of  interoperable  optical  networks  and  identify  critical  OTN  capabilities  needed  for  interoperability  based  on  emerging  OTN  technologies  and  evolving  industry  standards.  This  tutorial 
 will  also  introduce  the  Optical  Internetworking  Forum  and  its  role  in  the  evolution  of  the  OTN. 
 The  presentations  will  be  made  by  Dr.  Vishnu  Shukla,  Principal  Member  of  Technology  Staff  at  Verizon  and  member  of  the  OIF  Board  of  Directors,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Afferton,  Senior  Systems  Engineer  at  Northrop  Grumman 
 TASC  and  member  of  the  OIF  Board  of  Directors  and  the  Steering  Board  of  the  Optical  Fiber  Communications  Conference. 


 The  public  is  invited  to  attend.  No  preregistration  is  needed.  Open  captioning  will  be  provided  for  this  event.  Other  reasonable  accommodations  for  people  with  disabilities  are  available  upon  request.  Include  a  description  of 
 the  accommodation  you  will  need  including  as  much  detail  as  you  can.  Also  include  a  means  for  contacting  you  if  we  need  more  information.  Make  your  request  as  early  as  possible;  please  allow  at  least  5  days  advance  notice. 
 Last  minute  requests  will  be  accepted,  but  may  be  impossible  to  fill.  Send  an  e-  mail  to  fcc504@  fcc.  gov  or  call  the  Consumer  &  Governmental  Affairs  Bureau:  For  sign  language  interpreters,  CART,  and  other  reasonable 
 accommodations:  202-  418-  0530  (voice),  202-  418-  0432  (tty).  For  accessible  format  materials  (braille,  large  print,  electronic  files,  and  audio  format):  202-  418-  0531  (voice),  202-  418-  7365  (tty). 


 For  further  information  contact  Young  Carlson  at  Young,  Carlson@  fcc.  gov,  202-  418-  2427  voice  and  202-  418-  2989  TTY.  RealAudio  and  streaming  video  access  to  the  tutorial  will  be  available  at  www.  fcc.  gov/  realaudio.  Videotape 
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 of  the  tutorial  will  be  purchased  from  the  FCC  contractor,  CACI  Productions  Group,  341  Victory  Drive,  Herndon,  VA  20179,  by  calling  at  703-  834-  1470. 
 -FCC- 
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