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When Disaster Strikes: Safeguarding Networks

PRESS RELEASE

05 March 2014

Contact:
Lyndsay Meyer OFC 2014 +1.202.416.1435 lmeyer@osa.org

When Disaster Strikes: Safeguarding Networks

See caption below
Disaster-aware data center and content placement in a 24 node US-wide topology. Credit: S. Ferdousi
Click for a larger image


See caption below
Possible attack targets on a US-wide topology. Credit: S. Ferdousi
Click for a larger image

WASHINGTON, March 5, 2014–Disasters both natural and human-caused can damage or destroy data and communications networks. Several presentations at the 2014 OFC Conference and Exposition, being held March 9-13 in San Francisco, Calif., USA will present new information on strategies that can mitigate the impacts of these disasters.
 
New Algorithm Finds Safe Refuge for Cloud Data
 
Much of our computing these days, from browsing websites and watching online videos to checking email and following social networks, relies on the cloud. The cloud lives in data centers – massive warehouses filled with thousands of servers that run constantly. Disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes, or even terrorist attacks, can damage the data centers and the communication links between them, causing massive losses in data and costly disruptions.
 
To mitigate such potential damage, researchers from the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), Sakarya University in Turkey, and Politecnico de Milano in Italy, first analyzed the risk that a disaster may pose to a communications network, based on the possible damage of a data center or the links that connect them to users. Then, they created an algorithm that keeps data safe by moving or copying the data from data centers in peril to more secure locations away from the disaster. The algorithm assesses the risks for damage and users' demands on the network to determine, in real-time, which locations would provide the safest refuge from a disaster.
 
"Our content placement solution can be implemented with some modifications on any existing settings of data centers and it is adaptable to different dynamic disaster scenarios," said researcher Sifat Ferdousi of UC Davis. "This can highly benefit the network providers in designing disaster-resilient cloud networks."
 
Presentation M2H.4 titled, “Disaster-Aware Dynamic Content Placement in Optical Cloud Networks” will take place Monday, March 10 at 3:15 p.m. in room 130 of the Moscone Center. The work was done as part of a research project at UC Davis funded by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
 
Integrating Wireless with Fiber for Temporary Emergency Networks 
 
Earthquakes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters can sever the optical fibers that carry data across long distances, leaving telecommunications networks useless. If fiber-optic cables are down, wireless communication can fill the void and be part of a temporary, emergency network. But for such a system to work, wireless technology would have to be integrated with the fiber-optic network that transports data around the world.
 
Such an integrated wireless optical system would combine the speed and bandwidth of fiber optics with the mobility and range of a wireless network. This system could also be applied in home networks, in which data is sent via optical cables to the home then broadcasted wirelessly.
 
One big challenge of an integrated system, however, is to develop the wireless links that can handle the speed and capacity of optical cables. Researchers from Fudan University in Shanghai and ZTE (TX), Inc. in Morristown, N.J., USA have now developed a new antenna architecture that allows for a simple and high-speed integrated wireless optical system. The design relies on two pairs of antennas, explains Jianjun Yu of ZTE. Because each pair is polarized differently and isolated, there's no interference between the two pairs, allowing for a simpler structure and a larger transmission capacity. The new system achieves a data-transmission rate of 146 gigabits per second (Gb/s), which is the highest bit-rate-per-channel in a wireless signal shown so far, Yu says.
 
Presentation M2D.7 titled, “Antenna Polarization Diversity for 146 Gb/s Polarization Multiplexing QPSK Wireless Signal Delivery at W-band” will take place Monday, March 10 at 5:30 p.m. in room 122 of the Moscone Center.
 
PRESS REGISTRATION: A press room for credentialed press and analysts will be located in the Moscone Center, Sunday through Thursday, March 9-13. Those interested in obtaining a press badge for OFC should contact Lyndsay Meyer at 202.416.1435 or lmeyer@osa.org.
 
About OFC 
For more than 35 years, OFC has been the premier destination for converging breakthrough research and innovation in telecommunications, optical networking, fiber optics and, recently, datacom and computing. Consistently ranked in the top 200 tradeshows in the United States, and named one of the Fastest Growing Trade Shows in 2012 by TSNN, the conference unites service providers, systems companies, enterprise customers, IT businesses, and component manufacturers, with researchers, engineers, and development teams from around the world. OFC includes dynamic business programming, an exposition of more than 550 companies, and cutting-edge peer-reviewed research that, combined, showcase the trends and pulse of the entire optical networking and communications industry. OFC is managed by The Optical Society (OSA) and co-sponsored by OSA, the IEEE Communications Society (IEEE/ComSoc), and the IEEE Photonics Society.  OFC 2014 takes place March 9-13 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, Calif., USA.