Optical-layer networking with lightwave micromachines

Fueled by yet another era in which their capacity-forecasters have been blind-sided by an unpredicted onslaught of demand, long-haul network operators now operate in an environment of fear. The fear was initially that of being caught with inadequate transmission capacity. This difficulty is now largely being laid to rest by the sudden maturation of wavelength-division multiplexing. As a result, the globe's long-haul optical networks are swiftly transforming themselves into terabit-per-second systems that transport tens to hundreds of wavelengths on each fiber, each wavelength modulated at 2.5 to 10 Gb/s in deployed systems, with field trials at 40 Gb/s now underway.