ECOC 2021 - The largest conference on optical communications in Europe
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This year Tektraco was privileged to make ECOC 2021 in Bordeaux France. ๐๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐ซ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐๐ง ๐ ๐๐ญ๐ก๐๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข๐๐๐ฅ ๐ข๐ง๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐๐ฃ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐๐ฒ๐๐ซ๐ฌ. The trade fair covers from optical component fabrication, optical chip testing, optical electronics, cables, and accessories as well as a fully fledged conference where new technologies and ideas are revealed to the world. For a systems integrator focused on optical technology like us, it was like Disneyland ๐
We were lucky to have an in-person event after two years of the pandemic. For Tektraco it was the first time at ECOC, it was recommended by our fantastic partners EXFO and Sumitomo as the place to find the next big thing. Sadly, neither EXFO or Sumitomo could make it and the show was much smaller than in the previous years. Yet it was still a challenge for our two-person delegation to tour all the exhibitors and attend information events! We dare to wonder what a normal year would look like!
We are super excited with the follow-up we must do and we hope it will lead to some interesting announcements in the future. Here a couple of takeaways we got from the show:
๐ต Splice on connectors are dead, simply vanished with all manufacturers pushing mechanical systems instead, this lead us to cease our development of this solution as we tried 3 variations with no success;
๐ต XGS PON, NGPON2 and 5G are ever more connected, 5G backhaul demands fibre and with new architectures dropping CPRI to use ethernet, we expect more fibre and fewer electronics at radio base station sites;
๐ต FTTh in Europe is still in full swing and we expect another 5-10 years of deployment of this fantastic technology;
๐ต European manufactures and standard installation recommendations are still cumbersome and costly when compared to the far east and the local deployments in Malta;
๐ต Impressive how a small Maltese firm like Tektraco had to explain the requirement for mid-span access fibre enclosures as well as the extractable and micro-module type cables to many people.
