Will rapid advances in photonic integration have a disruptive impact on carriers' optical networks?

While many system vendors are concerned about losing a generation of well-developed product because of the prolonged slow market, many optical component and subsystem vendors continue to pursue various avenues towards dramatic reduction of total cost of ownership for next generation optical transmission equipment. This paper is intended to provide a carrier's perspective on the potential disruptive impact of the optical integration based new devices to next generation optical transmission equipment. The emphasis is put on emerging applications of these new devices and related technical requirements. By providing the carriers' perspective, this paper may help promote a new line of thinking about what new technologies vendors should focus on in order to make next-generation optical transmission systems much lower in cost, smaller in footprint, and lower in power consumption.