Page 166 - Optical Switching And Networking Handbook

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Optical Switching Systems and Technologies 151

The downside of this argument is that bubbles in printers only
have to last a split second before they are allowed to collapse. In an
all-optical switch, they may have to be maintained indefinitely. This
implies that the pen would have to keep heating up the fluid. This
also raises the question of whether this would increase the temper-
ature of the fluid in adjoining channels and whether this might
interfere with their light-carrying properties.
Agilent’s technology was used by Alcatel for its photonic cross-
connect system.
Alcatel initially chose Agilent’s bubble technology over MEMS
because of time-to-market issues and because it was scalable to
larger numbers of ports. MEMS does have some advantages because
of its ultimate scalability. Possibly the maximum size is 4,000 ports.
As three-dimensional MEMS mirrors become available, more ports
and enhancements will be the norm. MEMS technology is today
geared to long-haul fiber networks. As operators drive fiber deeper
and as high-bandwidth applications become omnipresent, MEMS
may be adapted for both access and metropolitan networks.
Analysts forecast that the world market for optical bandwidth
management systems will rise from an estimated US$543 million
this year to US$15 billion by 2004. Figure 6-15 reflects the growth in
this market.

16,000
Figure 6-15
Growth 14,000
expectations for 12,000
in millions $
optical network
management 10,000
systems 8,000

6,000
4,000
2,000

0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004