This talk considers the future evolution of PON technology through 2025, considering both the available technologies to implement them, and the apparent applications to use them. In a distinct shift from the previous linear speed-based evolution of PON, it is expected that several distinct PON systems will be developed.
The first is the continuation of single-channel TDMA PONs, this time to 50 Gb/s. This is meant to be the successor to XG(S)-PON, and aims to be a lower cost solution. Since it is an evolutionary system, its coexistence with previous generations is very important.
The second is an evolution of the TWDM-PON family of systems, also extending the per-channel line rate to 50 Gb/s. The TWDM-PON currently sees some application in business services where its special features are needed, and this extension allows the provision of multiple 10 Gb/s UNIs on each channel.
The third is a system using wavelength routing devices to increase capacity and optical efficiency beyond that possible with splitters. The near term applications of this type of system include 5G wireless fronthaul, and the “SuperPON” concept (where several TWDM PONs are combined with a wavelength router to achieve greater fiber sharing).
Beyond the physical layer technology, the talk also considers the application of SDN and NFV techniques. Counter to the popular opinion, we find very little to be gained by employing these methods. In contrast, it is the business model that requires innovation. Unbridled plug-and-play interoperability requires the equitable reallocation of development costs.

Dr. Effenberger has worked in the optical access field at Bellcore, Quantum Bridge Communications (Motorola), and Futurewei Technologies, where he is now the Vice President of the fixed access network lab. His team works on forward-looking fiber, copper, and coax access technologies, with several “world’s first” prototypes and trials. Frank is the rapporteur for ITU-T Q2/15, and chair of IEEE 802.3cp, is a Fellow of the OSA, the IEEE, and Huawei, and holds over 110 US patents.

The 40 years' research and developments of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) opened up a new world of VCSEL photonics, including, sensors, optical interconnects in data center networks, laser printers, LiDAR and high power sources. The market of VCSELs has been growing up rapidly and they are now key devices in data center networks based on multi-mode optical fibers. High speed VCSELs beyond 50 Gbps are expected for future data center networks. Also, 3D sensing has been attracting much attention for a wide range of applications such as face ID in mobile phones, LiDAR for automatic driving cars, distance sensor of robot, security camera, and motion sensors in virtual reality. A big market is prospected for 3D depth camera, which was installed in iPhone X. A non-mechanical optical beam scanner is a key element for use in various applications such as laser displays, laser sensors and free-space optical communications. A mechanical beam scanner has been widely used, but non-mechanical scanner is attracting much attention for compact solid state LiDAR applications in recent days. We proposed and demonstrated a beam steering device based on a VCSEL structure, showing the record high-resolution beam steering.
In this talk, the advances on VCSEL photonics will be reviewed. We address a lateral integration platform and new functions of VCSELs, including high speed coupled cavity VCSELs with low power consumption, high power VCSEL amplifiers of over 5W in a single-mode operation, high-resolution beam scanners, dot projectors and their integrations.

Fumio Koyama is the director-general (dean) of Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology. His research interest includes VCSEL photonics, photonic integrated devices, optical MEMS devices, optical sensing, high-power laser processing and so on. He has authored or co-authored more than 1,000 journal papers and conference papers, including over 100 invited papers. He received the IEEE Student Paper Award in 1985, the IEE Electronics Letters Premium in 1985 and in 1988, the excellent review paper award from the Japan Society of Applied Physics in 2000, Marubun Scientific Award in 1998, the Ichimura Prize in Science for Excellent Achievement from the New Technology Development Foundation in 2004, the Electronics Society Award from the IEICE in 2006, the Prize for Science and Technology from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2007, IEEE/LEOS William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award in 2008, the Micro-Optics award in 2012, Izuo Hayashi Award from the Japan Society of Applied Physics in 2012, Tokyo Metropolitan Government Award in 2015, the Ichimura Prize in Industry for Excellent Achievement from the New Technology Development Foundation in 2016, Sakurai Kenjiro Memorial Award in 2017, Okawa Prize in 2018, OSA Nick Holonyak, Jr. Award and IEICE Achievement Award in 2019. He is Fellow of IEEE, IEICE and the Japan Society of Applied Physics.

Plasmonics is a rapidly emerging branch of photonics, which offers variable means to manipulate light using plasmon excitations on metal nanostructures. Most prominently, the huge electromagnetic enhancement of plasmonic nanocavity offers the physical basis of single-molecule SERS and many other plasmon related research fields, such as tip-enhanced spectroscopy, plasmonic antennas, plasmon hybridization, quantum plasmonics, nonlinear plasmonics, plasmonic optical forces, and plasmochemistry. In this talk, the discovery, mechanism and applications of plasmonic nanocavity are briefly introduced firstly. Then we will talk about our recent studies using plasmonic nanocavity for sub-picometer sensitivity of spatial changes, extremely high optical nonlinearity and strong coupling. Another fundamental issue about plasmon propagation at the nanometer scale will be talked: The highly tunable beating of surface plasmon modes drives plasmon propagation in nanowaveguides and nanocircuits, which can realize plasmon routing, gain, logic functions etc. for nanophotonic chips.

Professor Hongxing Xu obtained his BS in physics from Peking University, China, in 1992 and his PhD in physics from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, in 2002. Then he joined Lund University, Sweden as an assistant professor. In 2005, he joined Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) as a professor. Then he joined Wuhan University as a professor. He is currently the dean of School of Physics and Technology, and the director of Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Wuhan University. He was elected as a member of CAS in 2017. He has published more than 180 peer-reviewed papers with SCI citations >15000 and H-index 56. He was elected by Elsevier as a highly cited Chinese scholar from 2014-2018. He has given more than 60 invited presentations at international conferences, and organized more than 20 international conferences and workshops. He discovered the nanogap effect for huge electromagnetic enhancement, which is the physical basis of single-molecule SERS and many other plasmon-enhanced optical processes. He invented plasmonic logic gates and revealed the fundamental properties of plasmonic nanowire waveguides and networks.

Photonic spin-orbit coupling describes how spin angular momentum of light, associated with circular polarisation of an electromagnetic wave, is coupled to orbital angular momentum of light (associated with the energy flow and propagation direction). Being strongly enhanced in a nanostructured environment, this effect provides interesting applications in polarisation-enabled control of optical signals, or in reverse, controlling light polarisation, sensing applications and quantum optical processes. The spin-orbit coupling involving waveguided modes results in the so-called photonic spin-Hall effect, in analogy to spin-Hall effect for electrons. In this talk we will overview the effects associated with the photon spin when circularly polarised light interacts with plasmonic nanostructures and metamaterials. Spin-dependent directional excitation of guided modes, spin-orbit coupling in surface plasmon scattering associated with the unusual, transverse spin of surface polaritons, and spin-dependent optical forces will be discussed. Nonlinear optical effects controlled by spin of interacting photons will be reviewed. Photonic spin-orbit interactions provide an important tool for harvesting new functionalities and applications of circularly polarised light in numerous photonic and quantum technologies, and metrology.

Professor Anatoly V. Zayats is a Chair in Experimental Physics and the Head of the Photonics and Nanotechnology Group at the Department of Physics, King's College London, where he also leads Nano-optics and Near-field Spectroscopy Laboratory. He is also a Co-Director of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and the London Institute of Advanced Light Technologies. His current research interests are in the areas of nanophotonics, plasmonics, metamaterials, scanning probe microscopy, nonlinear and ultrafast optics and spectroscopy, spin-orbit effects in photonics, and optical properties of surfaces, thin films, semiconductors and low-dimensional structures. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, the Optical Society of America, SPIE and the Royal Society of Chemistry.