Optical Switching

Here’s something that has been a long time in coming.

The invention demonstrates for the first time, Intel researchers said, that ultrahigh-speed fiber-optic equipment can be produced at personal computer industry prices. As the costs of communicating between computers and chips falls, the barrier to building fundamentally new kinds of computers not limited by physical distance should become a reality, experts said.

This is a technology that we have been dreaming of for quite a while.  Fiber optics provide a means to transmit massive amounts of data over great distances with no resistance because it is using light.  The problem is that eventually, that packet of light needs to be switched.  To do that, the light has to be translated into electricity for the purpose of switching.  The packet loses energy and speed during the switching process, which greatly reduces the advantages of fiber optics in the first place. 

Optical switches will allow that packet of light to remain in its original form for the entire duration of its transmission.  It may sound small, because we are talking about fractions of a second, but it adds up.  Trillions of packets of data are switched in the public network (internet) and private networks every second.  Plus, a single packet may pass through dozens of routers and switches before it reaches its destination.  Any technology that can reduce the time it takes to switch and route packets will increase the speed of every network by several orders of magnitude.

What this means to the average person is 50 times as much bandwidth to your house for a tenth of the price.  It means cheaper phone calls as more calls are transmitted via IP on an optical network.  It optical processors for your computer that run 100 times faster with no heat. 

It’s a whole new world.