Nortel Networks Outlines Vision of High-Performance, All-Optical Internet
Optical Capabilities To Enable "Faster, Wider, Further, Smarter" Internet
OTTAWA, Ontario, June 28 /PRNewswire/ - Tomorrow's high-performance, all-optical Internet will deliver greater bandwidth at lower cost and with greater intelligence than ever before, Nortel Networks (NYSE/TSE: NT) told attendees today at Net2000, Canada's premier advanced Internet conference.
In his keynote speech, Greg Mumford, president, Optical Networks outlined Nortel Networks' vision of a more powerful, all-optical Internet that will enable businesses and consumers to enjoy new and better services, greater freedom, and a simpler life wherever they happen to be.
"The Optical Internet has reduced the cost of carrying information across North America by 99 percent in the last 10 years," Mumford said. "We believe the pace now required for our industry has accelerated to 99 percent every five years, and we are driving to meet that objective for our customers."
Nortel Networks is an industry leader in building an all-optical Internet that delivers service faster, wider, further and smarter, Mumford said. Faster Optical Internet systems will transmit data at speeds as high as 80 gigabits per second. Wider systems will enable 160 channels - or colors of light - to be transmitted on a single fiber no thicker than a human hair. Nortel Networks Optical Internet systems can transmit light up to 4,000 kilometers without the need for electrical regeneration.
Mumford described making the Optical Internet smarter as one of the major challenges facing the industry. Nortel Networks is developing management systems that will allow service providers to manage individual channels of light, giving them the ability to quickly allocate new capacity to specific segments of the network or for specific applications on a network. Next generation capabilities from Nortel Networks will provide much greater control and flexibility in manipulating individual channels of light inside Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) networks.
As the Optical Internet scales up to terabit-level to accommodate the explosive growth in bandwidth demand, it will need to move to an all-optical core, Mumford said. Today's "opaque" electrical core will be superseded by a "transparent," all-optical or photonic core that will offer massive bandwidth, reliability and performance available only from an all-optical network. Nortel Networks' OPTera(x) Packet Solutions, including the OPTera Packet Core advanced optical switching and routing fabric showcased earlier this month at SUPERCOMM 2000, will play key roles in this development. Nortel Networks is committed to leading development of the terabit-level, all-optical Internet as the only means to deliver the rich, personalized multimedia content that businesses and consumers will demand, Mumford said.
"If the Internet is to meet its potential and satisfy the expectations of global society," said Mumford, "it must be robust, stable, scalable, dependable, secure, manageable, and above all, profitable, so that the needed investment will be there to deliver on all these attributes." |
