At the recent WDM & Next Generation Optical Networking conference, Nortel presented further evidence for the need for the New Optical Internet. They projected that by 2009, 74 percent of the traffic load on a Tier 1 Core Central Office will be Video on Demand.

In the last few years, we have seen significant decreases in the cost of 10GE interfaces. In spite of this, the old arguments for eliminating Optical- Electrical-Optical (OEO) conversions in telecom networks not only still make sense, but are more valid than ever.

Glimmerglass provided two Intelligent Optical Switches for a major demonstration at ShowNet during the Interop tradeshow held on June 7-9th in Tokyo, Japan.  The switches were used to connect 40 Gb/s light paths between a core router in the ShowNet Network Operation Center (NOC) at Makuhari Messe and another core router located 40km away in the NTT Otemachi building, supplying half of the Internet connectivity for ShowNet.

Years ago, cut-through routing was an important feature of IP/ATM networks. It enabled edge routers to use lower cost, lower latency ATM switches in the core instead of more routers. As bandwidth requirements soar and QOS requirements become more stringent, the idea of cut-through routing is now being applied to the optical domain.

Are you engaged in a project to help transform the Internet? If so, we'd love to hear about it. We might even include your story in a future edition of this newsletter. Write us at connections@glimmerglass.com. We'd love to hear from you.

Sincerely,