OPNTDS 2014 - International Workshop on Optical Networking Technologies and Data Security (OPNTDS)

Optical network can be defined as a network of the fiber optics cables through which data travels on the thin fibers at the speed of the light. Optical Fiber cables act as the backbone when they connect different Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with each other and in case of any breakdown or any kind of problem in the backbone results in a communication failure at very large scale. Fiber optic technology is the most popular in the telecommunication industries as well as Local Area Networks(LAN). Fiber optic cable is a bundle of various cables which are thin and provides a large bandwidth. The cost of the fiber optic cables is much higher and same is the installation of the fiber optic cables. Today, a large number of the communication networks depend on the fiber optics. Fiber optics is less susceptible to the outer interference than the metal cables. CCTV network, long distance switches, central offices, subscriber’s loop careers and industrial networks use fiber optics for communication purposes. In the near future, fiber optical cables will replace the conventional coaxial and Ethernet cables for the LAN networking.Optoelectronics and Fiber optic devices are highly useful in areas like Networking, storage, industrial, medical, defense, broadcasting, telecommunication systems. Optical testers are designed for a variety of measurements and tests with a single meter. Attenuators are designed for single mode applications, multimode applications and for attenuation settings. Fiber Optics and Optical Networking are emerging areas now a days. Fiber Optic connectors are used to connect a fiber with another fiber or equipment. There are different types of connectors which are being used today such as SMA, FC and SC connectors. In order to provide larger bandwidth to communication systems, FTTH technology has been utilized. The leading FTTH technology is PON or Passive Optical Network technology.Another area of optical communication and Networking deals with Free Space Optical Communication Systems (FSO). This line-of-sight technology approach uses invisible/visible beams of light to provide optical bandwidth connections. It's capable of sending up to 1.25 Gbps of data, voice, and video communications simultaneously through the air enabling optical connectivity without requiring physical fiber-optic cable.Optical/Optoelectronic Integrated Circuits are finding their application in areas like optical communication and networking technologies. The goal of integrated optics (IO) is to develop miniaturized optical devices of high functionality on a common substrate. The state-of-the-art of integrated optics is still far behind its electronic counterpart. Today, only a few basic functions are commercially feasible. However, there exists a growing interest in the development of more and more complex integrated optical devices.Biophotonics is a promising area where many researchers are trying to explore the possibilities of the new components and devices with biological materials. Such components and devices can be used in communication technologies also. The workshop OPNTDS 2014 deals with all of the above mentioned technologies.
Data is the raw form of information stored as columns and rows in our databases, network servers and personal computers. This may be a wide range of information from personal files and intellectual property to market analytics and details intended to top secret. Data could be anything of interest that can be read or otherwise interpreted in human form. However, some of this information isn't intended to leave the system. The unauthorized access of this data could lead to numerous problems for the larger corporation or even the personal home user. There has been a huge emphasis on data security as of late, largely because of the internet. There are a number of options for locking down your data from software solutions to hardware mechanisms.
Data security is the means of ensuring that data is kept safe from corruption and that access to it is suitably controlled. Thus, data security helps to ensure privacy. It also helps in protecting personal data. Disk encryption refers to encryption technology that encrypts data on a hard disk drive. Disk encryption typically takes form in either software or hardware. Software based security solutions encrypt the data to prevent data from being stolen. However, a malicious program or a hacker may corrupt the data in order to make it unrecoverable or unusable. Similarly, encrypted operating systems can be corrupted by a malicious program or a hacker, making the system unusable. Hardware-based security solutions can prevent read and write access to data and hence offers very strong protection against tampering and unauthorized access.
Hardware based or assisted computer security offers an alternative to software-only computer security. Security tokens may be more secure due to the physical access required in order to be compromised. Access is enabled only when the token is connected. However, dongles can be used by anyone who can gain physical access to it. Newer technologies in hardware based security solve this problem offering fool proof security for data. We need to ensure the complete security of the data to be communicated from one point to another. For this purpose, a wide variety of technologies have been utilized. The workshop OPNTDS 2014 deals with such techniques.