Optical Networks
Today, computer networks consist of optical fiber links, interconnected by electrical nodes. The data transport in the backbone is done in the form of light, typically from LED or laser. DWDM technologies enable bitrates well beyond 1 Tbit/s. However, at the nodes, this light has to be converted to the electronic domain, in order to switch all data to their separate destinations. Due to rapidly increasing channel capacities, the switching capacity is becoming the bottleneck of the system. Currently, research activities focus on optical switching technologies, that involve fewer or no conversions from the optical to the electronic domain. An important problem however, is the buffering.
Read more about this topic: Optical Buffer
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