Some reasons why LU is way ahead of everybody are here
lucent-optical.com
Lucent Optical-Vision
"Optical technology will be as important to the 21st century as electricity was to the 20th century." -- Gerry Butters
The rise of the Internet and the increasing demand for advanced data services have led to an exponential rise in telecommunications traffic. In an effort to meet this demand, service providers are looking to optical networking technology for fast, efficient transport over fiber-optic lines. Many have started to deploy a technology called Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM) whereby they can transmit multiple wavelengths – or colors – of light on the same fiber strand, with each wavelength carrying a distinct stream of information. Because much of today's technology involves the transmission of very closely spaced wavelength/colors, the technique is called Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM). Today's DWDM systems can combine up to 80-100 wavelengths of light on a fiber – enabling service providers to offer hundreds of times more bandwidth without incurring the cost of laying more fiber.
The enabler of DWDM is photonics, a technology that uses light particles, or photons, to transport information over hair-thin glass fibers. Photonics is expected to forever change the way we communicate – making it easier, cheaper and faster than ever before to access people and information.
In the not-so-distant future, The world's most powerful broadband networks will be all-optical – reliably delivering vast amounts of information at the speed of light. In an all-optical network, traffic will not need to be converted into electrons along the way (as is currently done), thereby making the transmission more efficient. DWDM, which can handle any form of network traffic (SONET, frame relay, ATM, etc.), will be the cornerstone of the all-optical communications network. And as DWDM technology evolves to provide hundreds, even thousands of wavelengths per fiber, the cost of transmitting information will be greatly reduced – opening up endless possibilities for communications.
Lucent Technologies has maintained a leadership role in optical networking. Bell Labs, Lucent's research and development arm, helped pioneer DWDM technology and has garnered more than 2,000 patents in optical technology alone. Lucent was first to market with a DWDM product for long-distance networks – introducing its Optical Line System (OLS) in 1995. Since then, it has shipped more than 4,000 DWDM systems – the largest deployment worldwide – and continues to lead the field in optical networking.
As we enter the new millennium, Lucent is adding to its optical networking portfolio by moving photons ever-closer to the desktop and transmitting information faster than ever. With its new series of "metro" optical networking products, Lucent is bringing DWDM's economic efficiencies – traditionally enjoyed by long-distance carriers – to local and enterprise networks. By offering the industry's first single-laser optical transmission system capable of delivering 40 gigabits per second of capacity on a single wavelength, Lucent is offering a cost-effective time division multiplexing (TDM) solution for carriers whose financial or network situations do not allow them to currently implement DWDM. And Lucent's WaveStar™ OpticAir™ system will enable carriers to use beams of light to transmit multiple wavelengths of information directly through the air. This breakthrough system will extend the reach of today's fiber-optic systems to areas where cost, geography or other constraints make fiber connections impractical.
The next step in achieving the all-optical network is bringing high-speed optics all the way to network servers. Lucent's breakthrough OptiStar™ product line, which includes network and storage adapter cards and software, will directly connect servers to optical IP networks. The products will dramatically increase the amount of data that servers can handle and accelerate the flow of information from a server's hard drive to the end user. As a result, service providers and enterprise customers will be able to unite wide area networks (WANs) and local area networks (LANs) into an integrated Optical Area Network™ -- alleviating the bottlenecks facing today's servers and empowering them to handle high-bandwidth, multimedia applications like never before.
In addition to delivering bandwidth to meet the growing demand for data, voice and video traffic, Lucent also has introduced revolutionary bandwidth management solutions. With both the WaveStar BandWidth Manager and the new WaveWrapper enhancement to Lucent's DWDM systems, carriers can efficiently monitor and route increased traffic without adding to the complexity of their networks.
Lucent offers a full range of fiber-optic components, optical systems and cable products designed to enhance the capacity and performance of long- and short-distance networks – both on land and undersea.
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