Edward Sokolowski
Summary
- Results-driven Network Engineer job seeker with 15+ years of expertise designing, deploying and maintaining robust local area networks, wide area networks, and intranets communications infrastructure with optical and wireless networking and cloud storage.
- Deep development, implementation and support knowledge and hands on experience with Ethernet/IP Data LAN/WAN/SDN, Video and Voice communications network design, synchronization, timing, modeling, link and traffic engineering and implementation, from Edge to Core, over in wired copper, fiber and wireless infrastructure.
- Strong track record of accurately conducting new installs, upgrades, system repairs and troubleshooting.
- Experienced in all facets of communications and data center networking – network architecture, network engineering, network protocols, servers, routers and switches for access, transport, multiplexing, storage and switching products including servers, routers and switches.
- Offering exemplary planning, project management and communication talents.
- Experience with major US-based cloud providers for storage and compute.
- Experience designing optical communications and data collection systems for US military
- Willing and able to work on-site oversea. Have worked in Germany, US in Hayward California and Princeton New Jersey, Shanghai China, Hsinchu Taiwan, New Delhi and Chennai India, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.
Overview
42
42
years of professional experience
Work History
Director Network Architecture and Design (Contract)
Alphion Corp.
Kanata, ON
01.2023 - Current
- 5G NR PNF and NVF subsystems, IOT and fronthaul/midhaul/backhaul subsystems for XHAUL
- Latest O-RAN and SDN specifications
- GPON for 5G NR fronthaul, mid haul
- DWDM and Optical WDM/IP/MPLS/GMPLS for 5G NR mid haul and back haul.
Consultant Network Architecture and Design
CES Consulting
Kanata, ON
03.2020 - Current
- Consultant Data Center server and cloud storage solutions
- Consultant Data Center SDN Optical Networking
- Consultant embedded ARM & FPGA hardware and asymmetrical OS (e.g
- RTOS and Linux) Software Designs.
- Assisted clients in navigating complex industry challenges, offering expert guidance and strategic recommendations.
Chief Designer and CTO CEPH Data Storage
Elastic Storage Solutions Inc.
Ottawa, ON
04.2018 - 03.2020
- Start-up. Responsible software, hardware and systems for software-defined network (SDN) unifying object/block CEPH based storage solution with prescient TensorFlow data curation framework and NVMe RDMA virtualization for organizations with large-volume data that requires extremely high performance
- Performed storage network design and analysis.
- Dual Xeon/EPYC, GPU, 10/40GbE, NVMe, RDMA, RAID, Kubernetes, Python, Docker, Linux
Director Software and Hardware Product Development
GC Photonics
Kanata, ON
06.2017 - 04.2018
- Responsible for Architecture, Hardware and Software dev for 32 channel 400GbE ONOS SDN/NFV ROADM, 16x16 LCD switches, Dual Core ARM SoC FPGAs, Linux/RTOS, C/C++, OpenFlow, NETCONF, SysRepo, yaml
- Developed high-performing teams by providing mentorship, guidance, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Led optical development team in Wuhan and software development team in Shanghai China.
Consultant System Engineering and Architecture
Alphion Corp.
Princeton, New Jersey
04.2016 - 05.2017
- Same position as previously but as a consultant as company consolidates operations in India
- During this time working on Data Center interconnect solutions and back haul solutions for 4G LTE
- Worked on-site in New Delhi and Chennai, India.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to successfully deliver comprehensive solutions for clients.
Director System Engineering and Design, VP Architecture
Alphion Corp.
Princeton, New Jersey
11.2007 - 03.2016
- Responsible for System Design, Product Architecture, Product HW and SW and Network management Product Line Management and Network Engineering
- Constantly recognized opportunities to exceed customer expectations
- Worked as well in New Delhi, India and Chennai, India
- Mix of working at company headquarters in Princeton New Jersey under TN-1 visa and India, and at customers
- Directed Systems development with a cross-functional team
- Architecture and System & Network Engineering of 9RU chassis and 1RU box OLT NE, Optical CPE and Network Management for GPON, XG-PON, NG-PON, VDSL2, Mobile Backhaul, 10G/40G product requirements
- Specified Product Requirements Management and oversaw PON products feature rollout from Release 1 onwards
- Authored technical specifications and system documents for in-house and OEM/ODMs for OLTs, ONTs, Wi-Fi routers, 3G/4G Femtocell, VDSL2 CO & CPE, MEF cards, PWE3 cards, IEEE 1588v2 PTP and SVU
- Responsibility for distributed PLM function – Roadmaps, Software NE and EMS Release Feature, new product introduction involving trials, marketing collateral, customer docs and competitive analysis, business cases, OEM/ODM designs
- Responsible for OEM hardware sourcing, software protocol stack purchases, new partners agreements
- SOA based PON Extender
- EDFA Video overlay
- Satellite over Fibre
- Standards representative for FSAN, BBF and ITU-T GPON, XG-PON & NG-PON standards efforts
- Worked closely with support services for product deployments into networks – network design, project planning, layout design, traffic engineering, SNMP, network installation, troubleshooting, and utilization and performance optimization for client satisfaction
- Over 1,400 GPON 9RU OLTs deployed
- Co-ordinate Technical Sales efforts including pre-sales support, client relations, market research, new account acquisition and competitive analysis, tenders/RFI/RFPs/RFQs, application guides, training.
- Assisted with sales and marketing strategies to foster achievement of revenue goals.
Director Product Line Management and Product Architecture
Terawave Communications
Hayward, CA
01.2004 - 10.2007
- Start-up. Terawave Communications was acquired by Occam, then Calix Oct.2007
- Mix of working at company headquarters in Hayward under TN-1 visa and remote which required 50% time in USA
- Hired to define new GPON OLT and ONT product line and Video and MEF products
- Responsibility for: Product Definition – Commercial Specification, Requirements Management, Technical Specifications, competitive analysis, business cases, use cases for Broadband Access, Wireless Backhaul and Video
- NPI- margin calculation, price structuring, branding, marketing collateral, documentation, training and trials for new GPON, PWE3, Outside Plant (OSP) hardened and Carrier EFM MEF products
- Life-cycle management including cost-reduction for existing BPON FTTB products and existing Long-distance Learning MPEG Video and Studio Video transport over SONET/SDH products
- Marketing support – branding, marketing collateral for NA, EMEA, CIS, Australia and Asia
- Sales support – RFI/P/Q responses, product training planning and implementing tradeshows
- Managed software release process for Application, Embedded & EMS SW releases 4.1 through 6.0
- Spear-headed Original Design manufacturer (ODM) MEF Carrier Ethernet First Mile (EFM) TW-500 series of products in Taiwan
- Gained experience in IP transfer directing IKANOS and MINDSPEED GPON MAC ONU ASIC program.
System Architect and Chief Designer
PrairieFire Network Technologies
Kanata, ON
02.2003 - 12.2003
- Start-up. Intellectual Property acquired by Terawave Communications Dec.2003
- Responsible for product definition, network design and product development for Carrier Ethernet employing Q-in-Q VLANs & VPLS VPNs over optical LRE for MSO SCTE and DOCSIS 2.0 Fiber to the Home (FFTx) market.
Consultant Senior Principal Systems Specialist
CES Consulting
Kanata, ON
08.2001 - 02.2003
- Systems consultant to US VC firms – Raza Foundries VC (FirstWave), Enterprise Partners (OpticalRiver OASICS, Gigabit, VSK, Solus), Applied Material Ventures and Canadian Skypoint Capital (Galazar Networks) and individual startups (Innovation Quest, Radialink)
- Evaluated client needs and expectations, establishing clear goals for each consulting engagement.
- Performed technical due diligence, product strategies, product proposals, business plan development, product requirements, to start-up incubation assistance for ROADMs, switches, fixed wireless 802.16/802.11 systems, optical sub-systems and FPGAs and ASICs for G.709, GFP, Clock & Data recovery, RPR/DPT, EOS, Hyper Transport systems, including PICMG and ATCA chassis'.
Chief Architect Optical Burst Switching and Director R&D
SAND Networks
Kanata, ON
10.2001 - 08.2002
- Optical Burst Switching Start-up
- Responsible for the product definition, network design and product development plans for this regional optical networking Burst Optical Switching start-up employing wavelength hopping technology tranche optical TDMA transport and optical TDM switching
- Inventor of new OBS methods. Several patents filed.
Director R&D OPTera Metro and CTO Metro Optical
Nortel Networks Optical Group
Ottawa, ON
12.1998 - 07.2001
- Increased staffing from 50 to more than a 140 person R&D team
- Role and responsibilities increased after Cambrian Systems was acquired by Nortel and became OPTera Metro Solutions to include not just Director of R&D but as well CTO with responsibility for renamed OPTera 5200 and Metro optical components
- Managed various major R&D projects – OPTera 5100, 10GbE card, InterWan (RPR) card, the Connect LX optical switch, and tunable 10Gbps transponders with budgets ranging from $300K to $6M; with full responsibility for budget forecasting and budget management.
- Formulated and implemented Nortel's overall Metro DWDM and G.709 OTN product strategy
- Developed high-performing teams by providing mentorship, guidance, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Member of Corning Tahiti all-optical switch project team, Optical Switching strategy group, Switched Ethernet strategy group, Optical Components Supply Management group and patent review board.
Director System Design and Core Equipment and Chief Architect
Cambrian Systems Inc.
Kanata, ON
03.1997 - 12.1998
- Responsible for the OPTera80 Metro DWDM product architecture, network design, product specification, product performance, optical link engineering, core subsystems, hardware and software
- Responsible for establishing the R&D infrastructure and the design environment for FPGA/CAD/CAE And hiring of the majority of the product development team, which included creating job descriptions and salary setting as part of establishing and administrating the overall R&D staff and capital budget.
- Planned and implemented engineering group structure, directing more than 50 staff for system development, Optical System Characterization, system integration, R&D Lab, System Packaging, Optical Devices Qualification, Setup of Factory Optical and System Test, Product Integrity, EMC Compliance Lab and CAD groups.
- Established a culture of continuous improvement by fostering open communication channels and empowering employees to voice their ideas.
Systems and Network Architect, Cornerstone Multimedia/Data/Voice
Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Ottawa, ON
08.1995 - 03.1997
- System architecture prime for the coax (HFC), copper (xDSL), and fiber (PON and HyperPON) for Cornerstone Multimedia, Data and Voice
- This included the responsibility for developing and delivering the first prototypes of key sub-systems, ASICs and FPGAs, and quantitative/analytical traffic models which involved teams in Ottawa, Ireland and Harlow
- One week each month spent in BNR Harlow, UK to direct for the design of the outdoor strand mounted CopperNode, an ATM/IP DSLAM by a 30-person team.
System Design Prime, OC-12/OC-48 S/DMS TransportNode (OADM)
Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Ottawa, ON
08.1993 - 08.1995
- System architecture prime for the OC-12 optical transmission system: architectural and system activities for the developments of DS1, M13 and ATM cards and applications over GR-1230 Rings.
- This included responsibility for the evolution of the ASICs and the DS3 and STS-1 tributary interfaces common to the OC-48 optical transmission system.
- Led training sessions for engineers on hardware and software platforms and methodologies.
System Design Prime, OC-12 S/DMS AccessNode Digital Loop Carrier
Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Ottawa, ON
08.1989 - 12.1993
- System architecture prime, for S/DMS OC-12 AccessNode, a Next Generation Digital Loop (NGDLC), now owned by Zhone Technologies
- Design basis for the S/DMS OC-12 TransportNode SONET ADM
- Responsible for product specification, functional requirements, ASIC requirements, functional integrity, hardware integration, product integrity, end-to-end performance, costing, and technology evolution
- Directly technically managed design teams in Ottawa and Atlanta.
R&D and Support Manager SL-10/DPN Packet Switching Europe
Northern Telecom GmbH
Frankfurt, Germany
08.1987 - 08.1989
- Recruited to train, develop and manage a hardware support team of engineers and technicians for NT's DPN system in Europe and Turkey.
- Managed daily operations to ensure smooth functioning of the support department.
- Monitored employee and customer interactions to assess quality of service.
- Reduced customer complaints by implementing proactive troubleshooting strategies and preventive measures.
- Responsible for more than $1.5M operating budget, including a verification laboratory facility and R&D lab for X.51 IDN, G.703 DSMX 64K/2F, DSMX2 and PCM30D
- Prime for such tasks as customer and licensee hardware support, new product introduction, hardware upgrades, trials, PTT approvals, product deployment and product support
- Streamlined the product approval process and expanded technical support services from two countries to 10 during this period
- Gained experience in job estimation, quoting, contract negotiation, contractor selection, billing, collections, troubleshooting, upgrades, return & repair and customer satisfaction measurement
- Resident expert and technical consultant to the ETSI ET-PH interface standardization task force.
Principal Product Architect, & Team lead, Packet Handler
Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Ottawa, ON
09.1985 - 08.1987
- Design & architecture prime for the DIU (Digital Interworking Unit) NE for use as an ISDN Packet Handler and DSP-based DS (Direct Synthesis) modem emulation Remote Access Server (RAS).
- Part of design that was not protected by patents used by NewBridge to architect their new Mainstreet product line of Data to DS1/T1 multiplexers.
- Sole design responsibility for supervisory processor card, OA&M link card, buses and backplane.
Principal System Design Lead Engineer, DPN Packet Switching
Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Ottawa, ON
01.1985 - 09.1985
- Productized the Exchange Termination- Packet Handler (ET-PH) interface for the DPN ISDN Packet Handler to meet corporate milestone of interfacing SL-1/DPN directly to a DMS-100 Class 5 Voice Switch over T1/DS1 line & T-link protocol for rate adaptation
- Included DSP-based DS (Direct Synthesis) modem emulation module (TMS32010) and Analog Devices DSP.
Packet Processor Design Engineer, SL-10/DPN Packet Switching
Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Ottawa, ON
05.1982 - 08.1983
- Designed a four card bit bit-slice AMD2901-based Packet processing subsystem for NT's SL-10/DPN packet switch and DMS-10 voice switch from schematic to alpha to volume production.
Education
B.A.Sc. - Electrical Engineering
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, OntarioMSc -
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, OntarioMBA -
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, OntarioSkills
- Strategic Planning
- Verbal and written communication
- Contract and Vendor Management
- Partnerships and Alliances
- KPI Tracking
- Project Management
- Staff Management
- Business Planning
Locations
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
Patents And Awards
- Patents in Optical Burst Switching (US 20040042796), PON and Optical Systems (US 8155516), Optical Rings (US 6256292, CA 2210121) and Optical Devices (WO 2002071658)
- Nortel PRIDE Team Award, Numerous NT and Nortel Project Achievement Awards
- Bell-Northern Research - Team awards, Project awards, Individual Award of Excellence
- Conference and product development awards
Professional Development
- Speaker at Professional Conferences
- Standards groups - representative at IEEE, SCTE, ITU-T, FSAN, BBF organizations
- Multitude of Technical Seminars and Workshops
- Executive Leadership Training at the La Jolla California Center for Creative Leadership
- Project Management Training
- Management and Business Training Courses
Languages
English
Native or Bilingual
Polish
Native or Bilingual
German
Limited Working
Timeline
Director Network Architecture and Design (Contract)
Alphion Corp.
01.2023 - Current
Consultant Network Architecture and Design
CES Consulting
03.2020 - Current
Chief Designer and CTO CEPH Data Storage
Elastic Storage Solutions Inc.
04.2018 - 03.2020
Director Software and Hardware Product Development
GC Photonics
06.2017 - 04.2018
Consultant System Engineering and Architecture
Alphion Corp.
04.2016 - 05.2017
Director System Engineering and Design, VP Architecture
Alphion Corp.
11.2007 - 03.2016
Director Product Line Management and Product Architecture
Terawave Communications
01.2004 - 10.2007
System Architect and Chief Designer
PrairieFire Network Technologies
02.2003 - 12.2003
Chief Architect Optical Burst Switching and Director R&D
SAND Networks
10.2001 - 08.2002
Consultant Senior Principal Systems Specialist
CES Consulting
08.2001 - 02.2003
Director R&D OPTera Metro and CTO Metro Optical
Nortel Networks Optical Group
12.1998 - 07.2001
Director System Design and Core Equipment and Chief Architect
Cambrian Systems Inc.
03.1997 - 12.1998
Systems and Network Architect, Cornerstone Multimedia/Data/Voice
Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
08.1995 - 03.1997
System Design Prime, OC-12/OC-48 S/DMS TransportNode (OADM)
Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
08.1993 - 08.1995
System Design Prime, OC-12 S/DMS AccessNode Digital Loop Carrier
Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
08.1989 - 12.1993
R&D and Support Manager SL-10/DPN Packet Switching Europe
Northern Telecom GmbH
08.1987 - 08.1989
Principal Product Architect, & Team lead, Packet Handler
Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
09.1985 - 08.1987
Principal System Design Lead Engineer, DPN Packet Switching
Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
01.1985 - 09.1985
Packet Processor Design Engineer, SL-10/DPN Packet Switching
Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
05.1982 - 08.1983
B.A.Sc. - Electrical Engineering
University of Waterloo
MSc -
University of Waterloo
MBA -
University of Waterloo