Page 264 - Optical Switching And Networking Handbook

11_200023_CH10/Bates 1/17/01 9:06 AM Page 249

The Future of Optical Networking (Where Is It All Heading?) 249

the data simultaneously. Traditionally, the light was great for the
transport of huge quantities of information. However, light did not
control the gating mechanisms that constitute the inner workings of
the switches and networks.To instill the controls necessary, the light
must be converted into electrical (optical/electronic/optical) so that
the chipsets can determine what is expected of them to switch and
route the traffic. These have been the challenges of the past.

So What About Now?

The changes taking place in the industry are many. However, looking
forward, over the next five to 10 years we can expect to see a myriad
of changes. What goes around comes around! In the development of
the Internet architecture, we have seen that the movement to
packet-switched architecture was accepted as the replacement for
our networks. The basis of this decision, as already discussed, was to
satisfy the growth and the demand for more data. As development
continues in the WDM marketplace, we can expect that the use of
eight or 16 lambdas (wavelengths) will become passé. Instead, we
can expect the providers to continue pushing the envelope and pro-
ducing 128 to 256 and even 1,000 different wavelengths on a single
fiber. The fiber cables being installed consist of 96 to 192 fibers in a
bundle (or many more in the long haul network). If we have 192
fibers and can place 1,000 different wavelengths on each fiber, we
will have

192 1000 192,000 different wavelengths ( )

Extending that number to a lambda carrying OC-192 today at
approximately 10 Gbps, the result is

192,000 10 Gbps per l 1,920,000,000,000,000 bps or
1.920 Petra bits per second

That is a consolidated figure, but it is a significant number. How-
ever, the snapshot is using the OC-192 at 10 Gbps for the overall