Toward Optical Packet Switching
Optical approaches are under development to address the problem of switching capacity in the data network.
Pietro Bernasconi, John E. Simsarian, Jürgen Gripp, Markus Dülk and David T. Neilson, Bell Labs
When we surf the Internet or when some of us place a phone call — and in the near future when we watch TV — we send and receive information from the data network (Figure 1). It is a nontrivial task to manage traffic coming from and going to everywhere, especially when the amount of data involved is so large and is growing so rapidly.
Network switches and packet routers ensure that all the pieces of information, or packets, are forwarded correctly to their intended destination. Switches and routers receive the data packets carried by the optical transport systems and turn them into electrical signals for processing. The packets are prepared for retransmission and reconverted to optical signals to be sent over optical fibers to the next switch or router, one step closer to the destination...
The complete article appears in the March 2006 issue of Photonics Spectra. If you do not have a copy of this issue,
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