Google, Huawei, JDSU, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks are just a handful of the industry-leading organisations now confirmed for the Market Focus seminars at this year’s European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) exhibition.

Held from 19 to 21 September at Geneva’s Palexpo, the Market Focus forms an integral market level presentation arena within the exhibition, featuring Tier 1 network equipment manufacturers, the principle FTTH body and high-profile CEOs and analysts. Sponsored by Opnext, it has developed over the past six years to become a focal point of the show, which is the largest of its kind in Europe.

This year marks the return of Google’s Senior Network Architect Bikash Koley, with an industry insight on “Towards Programmable Networks”, and also welcomes first-time contributors from Cable Comcast, Inphi and Optomera.

All presentations fit into six key Market Focus topic areas – the largest number to date – which are agreed by the industry panel that forms the ECOC 2011 Advisory Committee. The sessions will cover topics such as long haul optical transmission, data centre and interconnect technologies, mass-market broadband fibre access, optical network agility, packet optical transport and test and measurements.

“It has again proved a real challenge to select the final line-up from the submissions received but we feel that we have a truly world-class programme for visitors,” said Beverley Lucas, Group Event Manager for Nexus Business Media, organisers of the ECOC exhibition. “Over the three days we are set to hear from over 20 leading industry optical communications experts on key trends and issues, creating a lively platform for discussion and debate. With the Market Focus speakers now confirmed and the exhibition floor space almost sold out already, we are expecting this year’s show to be a great success.”

The presentations, which take place on the exhibition floor, will open on Monday 19 at 12.15 with a session dedicated to long haul optical transmission, featuring top executives from Oclaro, Ovum, NEL America, Ericsson, Cable Comcast and Opnext.

The Tuesday morning session, beginning at 10.20, will turn the spotlight on data centre and interconnect technologies along with mass-market broadband fibre access. Bikash Koley, from industry heavyweight Google will be joined by FTTH Council Europe Communications Director Nadia Babaali and Chair of Business Committee Paolo Sebben, who will give separate seminars on the outlook of FTTH in Europe and financing FTTH networks. Inphi’s VP of Marketing Siddharth Sheth will also address ‘Accelerating the Mass Transition of 100Gbe in the Data Centre’, while Brad Smith of Light Counting will focus on active optical cables and NeoPhotonics Ferris Lipscomb will explore next generation FTTH.

The optical network agility session will follow on Tuesday afternoon from 13.50, opening with Huawei Vice President, Network Marketing and Product Management, Reg Wilcox’s talk on technology advancement and network applications for optical burst transport networks. Further presentations from JDSU, Finisar and ADVA will follow.

To conclude, Wednesday morning’s Market Focus finale will address packet optical transport and test and measurements. Starting at 10.20 with Deutsche Telekom and followed by Infinera, Nokia Siemens Networks, Ixia and General Photonics, the session will conclude at 13.40 with Optomera VP Engineering Daniel van der Weide’s presentation on ‘Enabling even Faster Fibre: Analyzing>100Gb/s Coherent Signals’.

For the full Market Focus schedule or to register to attend ECOC 2011, visit www.ecocexhibition.com.