Although fiber optic capacity recently reached the milestone of transmitting 100 terabits of data per second over a single fiber, based on traffic growth trends, fiber optic capacity will need to be stretched even further to meet the increasing demand from businesses and consumers worldwide.

"Current data center technologies and architectures will not be able to cope with the ever-increasing traffic volume and will need to evolve to accommodate greater bandwidth and improved energy efficiency," said Dr. Leonid Kazovsky, IEEE Fellow and professor at Stanford University. "At the same time, the rest of the network will also have to evolve. Therefore, we must look toward future technologies, architectures, and infrastructure options that can effectively create 'fast lanes' for large amounts of traffic—the same express lanes on our highways that allow high-occupancy vehicles to reach their destinations more quickly."

Experts point out that the dramatic increase in viewing and accessing video content will be the main driver of innovation and fiber optic deployment in the coming years, not only in network provisioning but also in the data center itself.

"The emergence of new data centers, changes in interconnection agreements, and the appearance of new Over-the-Top (OTT) players are creating a slim chance of reducing network traffic," said Ori Gerstel, an IEEE member and principal engineer at Cisco in Israel. "Video content provided by OTT providers like YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu, along with peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, dramatically impacts traffic patterns and thus creates the need for a more agile and streamlined fiber optic network."

Other engineering experts cite the bandwidth demands of consumers and businesses as the top priority for optical communications engineers to address.

"Although currently fragmented, we see the next generation of optical access leading the consolidation of residential and business service networks," said Jun Shan Wey, senior IEEE fellow and standards manager and CTO at Nokia Siemens Networks. "From a global perspective, Asia is really leading the way. The Taiwanese government, for example, is talking about giving people 1G broadband access in their homes—access that was previously only offered to businesses."

Dr. Kazovsky and other industry leaders believe that one of the most important topics for OFC/NFOEC attendees is addressing access networks and integrating them with wireless networks.

"Optical access networks are especially important, and wireless networks are also important; even more important is the integration between the two," said Dr. Kazovsky. "In just a few years, copper's role will be much smaller than it is today, and future networks will be based primarily on fiber and wireless technologies. This is more or less a given. But how this will happen and how optical and wireless technologies will be integrated in the future remains an open question. Significant investments will be made in these fields, and this is an area that needs to be monitored very closely. One thing is clear: companies that make the right bet will flourish."

"Advances in fiber optic technology are increasingly impacting global business operations and consumers' ability to quickly access high-quality content," says Gordon Dia, President and CEO of IEEE.