Optical networking and the MONET project

Summary form only given, as follows. In December 1994, a group of major US telecommunications industry players (AT & T, Bell Atlantic, Bellcore, BellSouth, Lucent Technologies, Pacific Telesis and Southwestern Bell) formed the Multiwavelength Optical Networking (MONET) Consortium, with partial support from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to investigate and advance the vision of national-scale optical networking. This vision is based on the creation of a configurable, reliable, high-capacity optical backbone network layer capable of supporting virtually all current and future telecommunications bit-rate, format and protocol standards across long-distance, local-exchange, and private networks. This talk summarizes the motivation and the status of the MONET project.