Optical-layer networking with lightwave micromachines: what do service-providers need and when do they need it?

The need for optical-layer networking is fuelling an era of invention in functional optical network elements that has probably not been seen since the inaugural years of optical-fiber communications. Most prominently and urgently they need optical-layer crossconnects. It is reasonably clear that lightwave micromachines in fact do not represent the preferred way of implementing the full catalogue of functions articulated. What is astonishing, however, is how many of these functions have a proven history of resisting conventional attack from the more-or-less-standard optoelectronic device arsenal and, correspondingly, how many of them offer serious opportunity for the emerging weaponry of lightwave micromachines. We survey these opportunities, focusing tightly on particularly challenging yet ripening opportunities in optical-layer crossconnects, and describe both the nature and time-scale of the emerging network need, and the dim, foggy outlines of the looming arsenal that is just beginning to take shape to address it.