1998 predicted to be the year of the all-optical network
Approximately 250 attendees heard an upbeat outlook for the industry at the 20th Annual Newport Conference on Fiberoptics Markets, sponsored by KMI Corp. (Newport, RI) last October. According to presenters, 1998 will be the year of the all-optical network. One of the major incentives for such technology is the increased speed required by networks. Keynote speaker Alastair Glass, director of the Photonics Research Laboratory at Lucent Technologies--Bell Labs (Murray Hill, NJ), predicted that terabit systems will be used in commercial systems by the turn of the century. Systems with more than 100-channel capacity will require optical add/dro¥technology. The next step, said Glass, is full optical networking including reconfigurable add/dro¥nodes and optical crossconnects.