Agilent meldt doorbraak in optical switching techology

Agilent Technologie heeft bekend gemaakt dat het een optische switch heeft ontwikkeld waarmee het niet langer nodig is om optische signalen van bijv. een glasvezel touwtje naar elektrisch te converteren alvorens deze geswitched kunnen worden. Een puur optisch netwerk maakt hogere bandbreedtes mogelijk en dat is weer prettig voor Napsterende tweakers:

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A - news) today announced a switching technology breakthrough that allows information (voice, data, video) to be switched as optical signals without converting them from photons to electrons, thus accelerating the telecommunications industry's move toward an all-optical network.

When combined with technology for cost-effectively increasing bandwidth (dense wavelength-division multiplexing, or DWDM), the Agilent Photonic Switching Platform provides a powerful solution for unlocking the full potential of the all-optical network. This technology will enable network equipment manufacturers to accelerate the time to market for next-generation, all-optical network elements.

The Photonic Switching Platform includes the first commercial photonic switches ever created by Agilent -- a 32 x 32 port photonic switch and a dual 16 x 32 port photonic switch. Agilent will unveil the platform tomorrow (Mar. 7) at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibit 2000 in Baltimore.

Agilent's new platform is a vital missing link in the development of the long-envisioned, all-optical network. With Internet applications driving an urgent need for increasing capacity in telecommunications networks, a new generation of optical switches has become necessary so that wavelengths can be better provisioned and managed as information signals across entire networks.

[...] Commercial prototypes of the Agilent Photonic Switching Platform will be available by the end of 2000.