Quicker Switching: The Internet at the Speed of Light
Ten years ago, a letter would have taken two days to arrive through the mail, even if the sender and the recipient were just across town from one another. Now it reaches its target as an E-mail message in just a few seconds.
Through modern fiber-optic networks, the dream of the "Evernet" staying in touch with anyone, anywhere, at any time, probably through a cell phone - seems to be within reach.
Yet there's still one hurdle standing in the way of a flawless information exchange: The tremendous flow of data is getting caught up at the switching stations of the optical networks.
This has necessitated a fevered effort to develop "light switches" that can deliver a constant transmission speed.
"Imagine you're driving on the highway from New York to Providence and then on to Boston," says John O'Rourke to illustrate the problem. O'Rourke is responsible for optical networks for Agilent, a high-tech firm in California.
"Imagine that in Providence the highways aren't directly connected. So between the last exit on one highway and the first exit on the other, you need to crawl through the jammed city streets."
The same situation is at work in the junction points of today's Internet data networks: The fast light signals that make up that letter hit multiple crossroads and must be converted into electric signals - and then back again to light signals. As a result, the data moves at a snail's pace - at least by the standards of the Internet.
That's why Agilent, a spin-off of Hewlett-Packard, with employees around the world, is particularly proud of its purely optical switch that sends the light signals on to their destination without delay.
The French telecommunications firm Alcatel is just one of many to announce its intentions to put such data transmission components - each roughly twice the size of a dime - into its optical networks starting at the end of the year.
A capacity of 40 gigabits per second or higher would be theoretically possible. That's a million times faster than with a current modem and home PC. Faster and simpler also means cheaper.
Network operators could save around 40 percent through the new equipment, according to Alcatel's estimates.
Agilent is not the only company declaring itself a victor in the race for the first light switches. The technology is highly complex and is coming onto the market in different forms.
Other firms are declaring their stake in the Evernet and are jostling for the attention of the telecommunications companies - and Wall Street.
The Corvis Corporation of Columbia, Maryland, made its IPO with practically no tangible business, yet solely on the basis of its announcement of a pure optical switch rose in stock price until it was worth more than automotive giant General Motors.
In the following months, however, the stock valuation headed sharply downhill.
Agilent owes its creation to a flash of inspiration. Five years ago, Hewlett-Packard researcher Julie Fouquet happened upon a seemingly simple idea that nevertheless made immediate sense to everyone around her in terms of the work at hand.
She had taken the tiny bubbles that an inkjet printer uses to spray the liquid onto paper and had put them into her switch in order to divert the light into a certain direction.
(DPA)