Citation
(1999), "Fewer traffic jams", Work Study, Vol. 48 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.1999.07948gab.012
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1999, MCB UP Limited
Fewer traffic jams
BT researchers have demonstrated the world's fastest regenerator - a photonic digital network component that prevents signals from deteriorating as they travel down optical fibre. It operates at almost ten times the speed of today's fastest commercially available regenerators, offering 80 gigabits per second. This research is motivated by the very rapid growth in traffic owing to the increasing use of data services and the Internet. With data volumes expected to mushroom further in coming years, new core network designs will be needed. Present designs around the world rely on electronic switches and routers working over optical fibre. But BT researchers believe that an important technology for the future core networks will be high-speed optical networking - with electronic components increasingly being replaced by photonic equivalents. This will enable data to be carried without repeated conversion from optical to electronic form and back again, so eliminating bottlenecks.