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To: didjuneau who wrote (22387)	4/6/2000 9:59:00 PM
From: FaultLine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

The Agilent switch guides a beam from this input fiber to that output fiber over there by using an "ink-jet" bubble to reflect the beam to the proper output port fiber. In this regard it is like a bunch of tiny mirrors (see also MEMS from TI) steering the input beam. True, the signal remains photons all the way through the switch but the switch setup info specifying which reflecting element to use, travels through ordinary electrical side channels. This will make it possible for you to rent a custom multi-Gigabit light path for 6 minutes from your site in LA to your target in New Jersey. Click click click and a custom light path on a particular wavelength is configured for you in a few milliseconds! A far cry from the weeks it now takes to give you a (semi-permanent) line using the SONET system. The Agilent switch is NOT a router, far from it. It is just a super high bandwidth dumb matrix switch. Please read the wonderful white paper on routers at the Juniper website to really get a taste of how a router is in a different universe from a switch. Not to take anything from the very clever Agilent switch, but to me, gigabit routers are astounding creations. -ken