# Optical Flow Switching from MIT Could Make the Internet 100 to 1000 times Faster



## lotuseclat79 (Sep 12, 2003)

Optical Flow Switching from MIT Could Make the Internet 100 to 1000 times Faster.









Flow Switching









Best Solutions at Different Data Speeds

Note: Electronic Packet Switching is EPS.

Related article: An Internet 100 times as fast: A new network design could boost capacity.

*The heart of the Internet is a network of high-capacity optical fibers that spans continents. But while optical signals transmit information much more efficiently than electrical signals, they?re harder to control. The routers that direct traffic on the Internet typically convert optical signals to electrical ones for processing, then convert them back for transmission, a process that consumes time and energy.*









In today's Internet, data traveling through optical fibers as beams of light have to be converted to electrical signals for processing. By dispensing with that conversion, a new network design could increase Internet speeds 100-fold.

-- Tom


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