The network engineering and interconnection industry faces a critical and growing challenge: the decline of experienced engineers alongside an acute shortage of new talent entering the field. This presentation shares a practical initiative aimed at making it easier for new entrants to find the right resources and streamline their career paths in interconnection and peering.
Designed for IP engineers who want to demystify the physical layer, this talk recaps the fundamental optical concepts needed to understand how coherent pluggable optics work and how they enable the construction of IP over DWDM (IPoDWDM) networks. A practical primer for network operators looking to bridge the gap between routing and transmission — no prior optical engineering background required.
Building directly on the optical fundamentals introduced in the preceding session, this talk provides IP/MPLS engineers and network operators with a step-by-step framework for migrating from leased backhaul capacity toward lighting their own dark fibre using open-based optical and DWDM infrastructure. Drawing on real-world deployment topologies, the presentation offers a practical decision tree for choosing the right plugs and DWDM systems for 1G to 800G deployments — actionable intelligence designed for first-time optical operators.