 where he obtained his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees, respectively. For 15 years Paul worked at BT Laboratories in research and development on a wide range of optical component technolo- gies and optical networks. He was also a professor in the optics department at ENST Bretagne, Brest, France, for three years and has taught master's-level and doctoral students in Germany, Poland, Mexico, France, Spain, and the U.K. In this capacity, he makes regular visits to the Hochschule Niederrhein, Krefeld, Germany. A member of the IET, Paul is a chartered engineer as well as an FEANI-registered European engineer (Eur. Ing.). Paul A. Veitch, M.Eng., Ph.D. British Telcom Paul Veitch received his M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of Strathclyde in 1993 and 1996, respectively. He joined BT in September 1996, working on IP, ATM, SDH, and 3G network architectural design. In 2000, he joined UUNET (now Verizon Business) and led a number of projects on IP backbone network Contributors design. Paul returned to BT in 2003 and is currently the infrastructure solution design authority for BT's UK IPVPN platform, based at Adastral Park, Suffolk. Stuart D. Walker, B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D. University of Essex Stuart Walker received a B.Sc. (Hons.) in physics from Manchester University in 1973, fol- lowing that with an M.Sc. in telecommunications systems in 1975 and a Ph.D. in electronics from Essex University in 1981. In 1982 he joined BT Research Laboratories in Martlesham Heath, U.K., where he helped pioneer unrepeatered submarine optical system technologies. Stuart became a senior lecturer at Essex University in 1988 and then, in 2003 and 2004, reader and full professor, respectively. His group is extensively involved in U.K. government and European Union projects. Stuart has published more than 200 journal and refereed confer- ence papers and has 10 patents granted. John Charles Woods, Ph.D., MIEE, MIEEE University of Essex Dr John Woods is a senior lecturer in the Department