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MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
EECS Event |
Tuesday, April 3, 2001
4:00 PM (reception 3:30)
Edgerton Hall, Room 34-101
MTL VLSI Seminar and Boston Area MEMS Seminar
Abstract
With the volume of data traffic surpassing that of voice traffic, and growing at a much faster rate, the technology needed in the backbone and metro optical networks to support higher bandwidth is evolving rapidly. In addition, the role of the optical layer, which in the past has been, “big dumb pipes” in a point-to-point architecture is undergoing a revolution; more of the network functionality such as restoration, protection, route provisioning & bandwidth management, previously implemented in the electrical domain, are now beginning to be implemented in the optical domain. For this revolution to occur, novel optical devices such as all-optical switches, add/drop multiplexers, and dynamic gain equalizers, to name a few, must become commercially available.
MEMS (Micro-electro-mechanical systems) technology inherently offers many attractive solutions for performing some of the optical functions mentioned above. This talk will focus on how MEMS technology is enabling the shaping of the new optical network.