Over at The Register, there is an article heralding the coming of Terabit Ethernet. Apparently, researchers from Australia, China, and Denmark think they have opened the door to terabit per second Ethernet links using multiplexed 10Gbit/s data streams and small chalcogenide demux chips to demultiplex the 10 gig streams.
In the paper, entertainingly entitled Breakthrough switching speed with an all-optical chalcogenide glass chip: 640 Gbit/s demultiplexing, the researchers describe how injecting multiple 10gig data streams into optical cables is not a problem using existing optical technology (electro-optic modulator per stream) and optical time-division multiplexing (OTDM).
Recombining the data streams
The obstacle has been recombining those separate data streams at the end of the link and doing it fast enough. Apparently despite the recent hype about 40Gb Ethernet, the receiving and recombination of these streams is a problem at output rates higher than 40Gbits according to the research paper published in Optics Express, Vol. 17, Issue 4, on February 16th.
Until now the re-combination has been carried out using photo-detectors that can operate up to 40 Gbit/s or so. That limits us to just four 10gig streams. Achieving higher data rates this way means we have to send more parallel data streams down the cable and demultiplex – switch or recombine them – into one data stream faster still. This latest research uses waveguides just 5cm long by making them from chalcogenide glass chips with switching speeds measured in femtoseconds, a billionth of a millionth of a second, or a quadrillionth.
The researchers conclude that their test results confirm the enormous potential of chalcogenide-based waveguides for ultrafast optical signal processing.
They believe their technology can be extended to demultiplex 100 10Gbit/s data streams and so achieve a terabit Ethernet capability. The article points out that commercialization of such technology is, of course, if it takes place at all, many years away.
rb-
Seems like its time to add another synonym for huge to our vocabulary petabyte, exabyte, zettabyte
Some thoughts from Bob Metcalfe on TB Ethernet
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.