Innovation and Disruption: Where Fiber Goes Next!
Panelist Kevin Sheehan, CTO of the Americas

Innovation is at the heart of the fiber broadband industry. It is what fuels our growth, underpins our ability to reach more communities and homes, and deliver the services and applications that depend on fiber’s unlimited capacity and scale. This panel will share insights into what is being imagined within our member companies’ development teams, discuss what barriers still need to be broken, and how the fiber industry is on the same wavelength in terms of making  innovation a top priority.

Panelists:

• Kevin Sheehan, CTO of the Americas, Ciena
• Gaurav Juneja, President of Consumer and SMB, Consolidated Communications
• Liz Hsu, Senior Director, Product and Billing, GFiber
• Sandy Motley, Vice President of Network Infrastructure, Fixed Networks and Country Manager for the United States, Nokia

The Middle Mile  and Beyond Architecture
Panelist Vini Santos,  Senior Advisor, Marketing

In this Technology Deep Dive focusing on the Broadband Ecosystem ‘Middle Mile’ from the fiber OLT to the data center and cloud, panelists will discuss the technological advancements that promote a path to network virtualization, and disaggregation that enables network and service agility. Ultimately, a standards-based approach to the middle mile provides the transition from monolithic hardware to software-defined access networks. This enables service providers to be more responsive to market demand and to mix and match best-of-breed solutions for their specific needs.

Panelists:

• Kyle Pily, Broadband Forum
• Vini Santos, Ciena
• Filip De Greve, Nokia
• Janson Nelson, Silver Star Communications