Still some way to go
Friday, July 9, 2010 at 9:50AM Briefing: Dynamic optical networking
Part 1: The vision .... back in 2000
I came across this article (below) on the intelligent all-optical network. I wrote it in 2000 while working at the EMAP magazine, Communications Week International, later to become Total Telecom.
What is striking is just how much of the vision of a dynamic photonic layer is still to be realised. Back then it had also been discussed for over a decade. And bandwidth management, like in 2000, is still largely at the electrical layer.
And yet much progress has been made in networking technology. But the way the network has evolved means that a more flexible photonic layer, while wanted by operators, is only one aspect of the network optimisation they seek to reduce the cost of transporting bits.
