Polymer based optical waveguides (original) (raw)

H E Wlett-packar D Journal Technical Information from the Hewlett-packard Company Journal the Hewlett-packard Journal Staff Advisory Board Communications Challenges of the Digital Information Utility Optical Networks: Backbones for Universal Connectivity ^2^ Data Transmission for Higher- Speed Ieee

1997

An artistic rendition of global internet commu nications, showing fiber optic technology as the backbone for universal connectivity. We are approaching an era in which people will need 1-Gbit/s communica tions ports in their offices, their homes, and even on the road. These high speed tele-ports will enable telecommuting, telemedicine, tele-education, and a variety of multimedia applications for entertainment and computing. These demands for high-speed communications will require new telecommunications and data communications infrastructure with terabit/s data rates. Additionally, these communications networks will require very high-speed computers (Tflops), very high-speed instrumentation (THz), and large information storage (Tbytes). The technologies needed to reach these rates are being worked on at many R&D organizations around the world. In fact, many demonstrations have been completed in 1996-1997 showing 1-Tbii/s communications links over more than 100 kilometers, 1-Tflops co...

From E-Business into the O-Zone: Development of Optical Networks

2001

An increasing proportion of e-business and other network traffic moves over optical networks which provide higher capacity, speed, and security than electrical networks. An all optical network and even optical computing has been envisioned for 20 years, but technical characteristics of optical components have limited applications to the high end of networking, typically for speeds above 2.5 Gbps. While a fundamental advance in physics may be required for the implementation of an all-optical network, optics continues a steady advance into the network infrastructure. This paper describes the technical evolution of optical systems and examines the changing cost structure of optical systems that determines the size of the optical zone of operations (the o-zone).