Optical networking at IBM

The role of optics in high performance networks at IBM Research runs the gamut from pure transmission to dynamic WDM routing. The use of optics in more complex functions has been inhibited by the disparity in complexity between what optics can do and what electronics does in existing networks today. Described here are the few projects which address the interfaces between optics and electronics, and between traditionally device issues and traditionally networking issues in the use of wavelength-division multiplexing.