Keynote speaker: Loudon Blair

Senior Director of Corporate Strategy, Ciena (US).

Title: Scaling the Network for a Rapidly Changing Service.

Abstract:

Today’s networks need to evolve to keep pace with accelerating traffic demands on multiple fronts; video content is driving bandwidth, the Internet of Things (IoT) is expanding the number of networked endpoints and next generation mobility is compressing connection density. This talk describes how cloud networking is challenging our understanding of network scale and explores how new software-enabled programmable architectures will fundamentally change the networking ecosystem.

Biography:

Dr. Loudon Blair is Senior Director of Corporate Strategy at Ciena. Since joining the company in 1997, he has performed several roles in the development of Ciena's networking products including the formation of Ciena's vision for new and evolving network architectures. Today, he is responsible for strategic planning and assessment of industry and technology trends. He has also worked at Iridium, BT and Hitachi. Loudon received a B.Sc. degree (with first class honors) in Electronics from the University of Dundee, Scotland and a D.Phil. degree in Engineering from the University of Oxford, England. Loudon has 12 patents granted with a further 10 patents pending. He is a Member of the IEEE, Member of the IET and has been a long-term contributor to the OFC/NFOEC conference. He was general co-chair for OFC/NFOEC in 2008 and is current OFC Steering Committee Chair.