COVENTRY, England, March 26 -- The UK-based Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) Midlands Communications Group will launch a seminar series with "Network Restoration and Resilience in All-Optical Networks," May 7 at Warwick University. Speakers from telecommunications operators, equipment manufacturers and service providers will discuss next-generation solutions to the limitations of current networking technology in the face of increasing IP traffic and new multimedia and internet services. A second seminar on CWDM and DWDM in photonics networks will be held in June, and two additional events are planned for later in the year. The first seminar, to be chaired by Dave Johnson of British Telecom, will include speakers from Italian network operator Wind, equipment manufacturer Alcatel, Native Networks and the University of Pisa’s Centre of Excellence for Communication Networks Engineering. Habib Rashvand of Advanced Communication Systems will present a case study on cable and wireless optical networks, and Andy Barker of Marconi will present on overview of existing protection mechanisms and will argue the advantages of combined restoration and traditional fast switching backed up with restoration for survivability. The seminar will also include a discussion of GMPLS-based recovery techniques and extending MPLS into transport networks, including T-MPLS. Marconi is sponsoring the event. The Midlands Communications Group provides a forum for communications engineers, scientists and young researchers to discuss advances in communications systems, communications networks and related subjects. For more information, visit: www.marconi.com