- Dr. Rajendran Parthiban (Abdul Muqsith)
The development of a fully optical internet may not be as far away as previously thought. Some fundamental changes in the network architecture could provide enough cost savings to present a strong case for its implementation, says Monash researcher Dr Rajendran Parthiban.
“Although fibre optic cables are already used for high-bandwidth data transmission, the routers used at the end of these cables work in electrical domain and have the potential to slow down the internet transmission rate,” he says.
“At present, data transmitted over the Internet is sent in bundles called ‘packets’. In routers, these packets are lined up in a process called ‘buffering’ and then forwarded into the Internet. The data is carried through fibres in the form of light (or optical) signals.”
“The optical signals need to be converted to electrical domain in the routers for buffering and forwarding. These signals are converted back to optical domain before being sent through the fibers. This optical-to-electrical-to-optical conversion process is costly and can slow down the transmission rate.”
“One way to increase the transmission rate cost-effectively is through replacing some of these routers with optical cross-connects, which can forward packets solely in optical domain without the need for this conversion,” said Dr Rajendran.
“Optical buffering technology is in its infancy at this stage, hence routers are still required in a network with optical cross-connects for buffering and cost-effective packaging of packets.”
In view of the current limitations in optical buffering, he says an interim technology called Optical Burst Switching can be applied and his research shows that it is more commercially viable than previously thought. An article based on this research has been accepted for publication in Journal of Lightwave Technology.
“There is an additional step that we need to take before we can move to a fully optical internet – where we use the optical burst switching technology as a precursor to fully optical packet switching.”
Dr Rajendran says the cost-effectiveness of Optical Burst Switching shows promise and may pave the way for a fully optical internet hopefully not too far down the road.
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From - Jasbir Singh, Monash University, Sunway Campus, Malaysia.