ANAHEIM-- Reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs) will play a crucial role in enabling IPTV, G. Keith Cambron, senior vice president of AT&T Labs, said this morning at the Optical Fiber Communication/National Fiber Optics Engineers Conference.

“ROADMs are the enabling technology that really make IPTV possible,” said Cambron, who is the former president and chief executive officer of SBC Labs.

In the industry parlance, Cambron said, ROADMs allow carriers to avoid putting “hands on the plant.” They allow carriers to switch optical signals and adjust optical networks remotely rather than manually. In order to deliver IPTV to Los Angeles alone without ROADMs, AT&T estimated it would need to add 30,000 new optical networking jobs.

AT&T plans to deploy 400 ROADM nodes this year to support IPTV.

“IPTV is the trigger,” Cambron said. “Without it, it would be difficult economically to justfy [ROADM deployment].”