Re: All-optical networking Was: [Re: Notes on the Internet for Bell Heads]

[Scott Granados <scott () graphidelix net>]

Actually, research has been done that uses rare gasses to slow and even 
stop the photons down in a tube.  It would be possible to store the 
states of photons in these tubs and then release them when you wanted 
with out requiring miles of fiber.  Also, photons work inpairs.  It may 
be possible to split the pairs on the fiber and observe the actions in 
the fiber remotely  by capturing one side of the pair and allowing the 
others to continue.  They interact in  pairs even though physical 
distance is between them.

On Fri, 12 Jul 2002, Chris Kilbourn wrote:

> At 2:32 PM -0400 7/12/02, Ralph Doncaster wrote:
> > > Add in the fact that optical sniffing, while not impossible by any means
> > > today, will increasingly become non-trivial as bandwidth increases. Which
> > > is exactly one of the 'problems' they expect optical network to solve.
> >
> > You mean just expensive, right? i.e. a couple transponders and an OC48 or
> > OC192 switch.
>
> Cost is a factor, certainly, but the storage of the captured
> data becomes the larger problem.
>
> In the TB or PB range of optical data transmission, where and how do you
> store the captured information? Unless you have TB's of solid state drives
> to stream electrons into after an optoelectronic photon -> electron
> conversion your only other option is to store the photons in loops of
> fiber with an optical repeater.
>
> Until we have quantum computers which might be able to parse the data in
> real-time, we still need a buffer to store the data in before we can
> look for the needle in the haystack.
>
> Even with some nifty filtering on the sniffer, you're potentially
> looking at obscenely large amounts of information to store.
>
> I would expect that the distance of fiber you will need to store the
> data in will be the gating factor, which means it tilts more towards a
> physical issue than a cost issue.
>
> If I need a few thousand kilometers of fiber as a storage loop, it's
> kind of hard to move around efficiently. :-)
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Chris Kilbourn
> Founder
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