B'dozer,
First of all, fiber refers to the transport media, SONET uses fiber, so does WDM. What we're talking about here is the difference between switching electrons and photons (which are derived from electrons but obviously have different electromagnetic qualities).
...SONET uses TDM as synchronous multiplexing scheme, WDM obviously uses different wavelengths. They co-exist very nicely, but are very different. Remember though, the signals are always electrical when transversing the actual SONET gear. They are only converted to light when they travel the fiber.
I never claimed to be talking sense!! <gg>. What I was trying to get at is exactly the difference between switching electrons and photons, as in the bold faced excerpt (I used silica to refer to fiber). My understanding is that photonic switching is still very slow, so that at the switch point even "all fiber" systems continue to use electronic switching per silicon. My query was whether the CNXT chip would fulfill that function within an otherwise fiber environment, where, for switching purposes, the datastream is converted to electronic form for switching purposes and then back to photonic after the switch point to continue to destination (add/drop).
What you seem to be saying is that the CNXT chip is within a standard SONET/electronic "fabric", without the possibility of switching from electronic to photonic or back.
Thanks and best regards. Steve |
