Multi-granular optical networks

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) has enabled the efficient use of optical fiber's tremendous capacity in transport networks. Due to continuing demand for capacity caused my emerging applications, the number of wavelengths on a fiber and the number of fibers per link are continuing to increase. This causes a scalability problem in optical switches and makes them prohibitively expensive. This talk will present some recent novel approaches to build multi-granular optical networks that have the potential to achieve tremendous cost savings without sacrificing much performance.