ISMB

1

ISMB-POLITO

ITALY

Address and references

Istituto Superiore “Mario Boella” and Politecnico di Torino

Reference address:  Via Piercarlo Boggio, 61

Reference person: Roberto Gaudino

Phone +39-011564-4172  Fax

E-mail: roberto.gaudino@polito.it

General description, expertise and role in the project

The ISMB-POLITO partnership involves two closely coordinated organizations: Istituto Superiore “Mario Boella” and Politecnico di Torino. The two organizations works in strict partnership under a common framework, regulated by a formal agreement (public and thus available to the EU Commission, if needed) and, regarding this proposal, should be seen as a single entity.

 Istituto Superiore Mario Boella (ISMB) was established in July 2000 by the founding members “Compagnia di San Paolo” (the non-profit foundations of one of the larger Italian Banks) and “Politecnico di Torino”. Today ISMB sees as additional industrial partners Motorola, SKF, STMicroelectronics and Telecom Italia Lab. The overall goal is to foster synergies between Universities and Industries. The mission of the Institute is to build a national/international area of excellence in  Information and Communication Technologies (ICT sector), to promote an increasing integration between subjects that operate on innovative ICT projects, to activate research and education programs, to create synergy between Academia and Industry and to boost entrepreneurial activities in the ICT sector. As a result of this mission, ISMB foster the participation to European research project, supporting both proposal writing and project coordination through its infrastructure and expertise. For further info, please have a look at the Institute web site: www.ismb.it

 The Optical Communication Group at Politecnico di Torino was founded in 1992, and has acquired, throughout the last decade, a vast and cutting-edge experience in theory, simulation and experiment in optical communication systems. The group has 7 permanent staff members, typically 3 to 4 regular PhD students, and several Master Thesis students. It is permanently involved in national and international research programs, and in consulting activities with major companies in the field of optical communications.

The group has published more than 150 papers on international journals and conferences, covering the following main areas of activities:

• new and alternative optical modulation formats (Polarization modulation or PolSk, duobinary modulation, phase modulation and coherent optical receivers)
• theory, modeling and simulation of optical links, including linear and nonlinear fiber effects, and optical components (SOA, directly modulated lasers and Lithium Niobate Modulators)
• advanced techniques for optical amplification (transient-free EDFA and Raman amplification)
• optical networking prototypes (in the framework of NSF and DARPA funded projects, such as CORD, MOSAIC and OPERA, and in national projects, such as RINGO)
• starting in 2001, the group has been actively working in the POF sector, as demonstrated by the list of publications below.

The POLITO group is involved in European Projects. Currently, the group is actively working in the FP6 E-PhotonOne  Network of Excellence, as described in a previous part of this proposal. For further info, please have a look at the POLITO optical communication group web site: www.optcom.polito.it

The POLITO reference person, and project coordinator, will be Dr. Roberto Gaudino, PhD (see publications below), while the principal researcher for ISMB will be Dr. Antonello Nespola, PhD.

The total number of person-months dedicated to the POF-ALL project is 76.

Facilities

In March 2003, thanks to the ISMB-POLITO partnership, the group obtained a new, quite spacious laboratory (300 square meters) called "PhotonLab", inside the so-called “Redoubling Project” of Politecnico di Torino. Even though the availability of the laboratory is not formally suitable as a co-funding source of this proposal, it represents however a fundamental element for the implementation of the experimental activity planned in POF-ALL, which will require significant resources in terms of room and facilities. Associated with the lab, a research financing called "Laboratori di Alta Qualità" LAQ (approved in 2002) was recently allocated by Politecnico di Torino, for a total amount of 1.3 MEuro, to be spent for the acquisition of instruments and equipment pertaining to optical transmissions and components. This fund has partially been used (in 2003-2004) to acquire POF test and measurement systems, that will be used in the POF-ALL project. In particular:

• POF high resolution Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR)
• High speed receiver (1 GHz) for the visible range
• POF power meter
• Tools for POF and POF connectors handling, inspection, etc.

 Thanks to its strong previous collaboration with the Italian carrier operator FASTWEB, a replica of the FASTWEB residential Fiber-To-The-Building (FTTB) architecture is available in the Photonlab premises. The availability of this infrastructure will be key for the testbed and validation experiments carried out in WP6.

Relevant publications

On polymer optical fiber transmission systems:

1. R. Gaudino, S. Abrate, E. Capello, G. Perrone, M.Chiaberge, P. Francia, "Advanced modulation formats over POF: is there a rationale for multilevel optical transmission?", POF WORLD Conference 2004, San Jose’, CA, June 24-25.
2. G. Perrone, R. Gaudino, D. Perla, S. Abrate, "Low cost POF based sensors for civil applications", POF WORLD Conference 2004, San Jose’, CA, June 24-25
3. R. Gaudino, E. Capello, G. Perrone, Silvio Abrate, M. Chiaberge, P. Francia, G. Botto, "Advanced modulation format for high speed transmission over standard SI-POF using DSP/FPGA platforms", POF Conference 2004, Nuerberg, Sept. 2004
4. E. Capello, G. Perrone, R. Gaudino, "POF bandwidth measurements using OTDR", POF Conference 2004, Nuerberg, Sept. 2004
5. G. Perrone, D. Perla, S. Abrate, R. Gaudino, "Development of low cost intensity modulated POF based sensors and application to the monitoring of civil structures",  POF Conference 2004, Nuerberg, Sept. 2004

On standard (silica) fiber transmission systems:

R. Gaudino and the other people of the POLITO group have over 150 international papers in this field
(see http://www.optcom.polito.it/publications/publications.htm)

CV partner reference person

SCIENTIFIC COORDINATOR: Roberto Gaudino is currently an assistant professor in the Optical Communication Group at Politecnico di Torino, where he is working on several research topics related to optical communications. He received the Laurea in Ingegneria Elettronica (summa cum laude) from Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy, in 1993, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering (optical communications) in 1998. Dr. Gaudino spent the year of 1997 at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, as a visiting researcher in the OCPN group, where he worked in the realization of the MOSAIC optical network testbed. He is also co-operating with several  Universities and research centers on joint research programs, such as the EPhoton-ONE FP6 Network of Excellence (WP3 steering committee member). From 1998 to 2000, he was with the team that coordinated the development of the commercial optical system simulation software OptSim. He has consulted for several companies and he is author or co-author of more than 60 papers in the field of Optical Fiber Transmission and Optical Networks. He is co-founder of ATS Srl., a consulting firm in the field of optical communications. He is active in professional lecturing, for two different continuing education companies. His main research interests started in the long haul DWDM systems, fiber non-linearity, modeling of optical communication systems and on the experimental implementation of optical networks. Currently his research activities are focused on  packet switched metro optical networks, and on low cost optical access systems.

 ISMB CHIEF RESEARCHER: Dr. Antonino Nespola received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Politecnico of Torino, in 1995 and 2000, respectively. From 1997 to 1998, he was a Visiting Researcher in the Photonics Laboratory of the University of California Los Angeles. From 1999 to 2003 he was Member of Technical Staff and R&D Lab Director in Corning, Milan, where he conducted research in high-speed  opto-electronics. In 2003, he joined Pirelli Labs, Milan,  as senior researcher in a project dealing with the design of  high frequency Silicon photonic circuits based on CMOS technology. He is currently at the ISMB where he  is the project-manager on Fiber Optic and Plastic Fiber Optic system communication and related opto-electronics transceiver design. Antonino Nespola has published over 20 journal and conference papers, and holds 3 U.S./European patents.