Optical Tech

2020 Lightwave Innovation Reviews Honorees

Feb. 20, 2020

We honor the following entries for achieving a score of at least 3.5 on that 1 to 5 scale. Congratulations to all of the companies listed here!

Stephen Hardy

Our seventh annual Lightwave Innovation Reviews follows our standard format. We invited technology developers to submit products in various technology categories for review by our independent panel of judges in time for OFC 2020. In some cases, that brought entries for products that will be introduced at this year's show.

Lightwave Editorial Director Stephen Hardy, in his role as Award Program Manager, assigned each entry to be reviewed by at least three judges knowledgeable in the relevant technology or application. As was the case in previous years, they rated each entry on the following scale:

0-1: Useful product, yet commodity
2-3: Solid product with viable attributes
3-4: Excellent product with technical features and performance that provide clear and substantial benefits
4-5: Superb product that sets new standard for performance and provides groundbreaking and new technical milestones.

This year’s panel included:

Robert Blum, director, strategic marketing and business development, Intel Corp.
Brandon Collings, CTO, Optical Communications, CCOP, Lumentum
Jorg-Peter Elbers, SVP, advanced technology, standards and IPR, ADVA Optical Networking
Frank Effenberger, Vice President and Fellow, Access Advanced Technologies, Futurewei Technologies
Mike Frankel, Ciena Fellow, Ciena
Jim Hayes, President, Fiber Optic Association
Lisa Huff, principal analyst, Optical Components, OVUM
Tom Issenhuth, principal at Issenhuth Consulting
Peter Jones, Principal Engineer, Cisco
Vladimir Kozlov, founder and CEO, LightCounting
Patrick McLaughlin, editor in chief, Cabling Installation & Maintenance
Bethany Rüddek, RTPM, program advisor/R&D, Concert Technologies
Jim Theodoras, vice president of R&D, HGGenuine USA.
Matt Traverso, Principal Engineer, Cisco
Ken Williams, Director, HFC Evolution and Standards. WOW!
Dr. Tiejun J. (TJ) Xia, Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, Verizon

And, as has been tradition, we honor the following entries for achieving a score of at least 3.5 on that 1 to 5 scale. Congratulations to all of the companies listed below – and be sure to look for these companies at OFC 2020 to find out more.

About the Author

Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave

Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.

Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.

He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.

You can connect with Stephen on LinkedIn as well as Twitter.