Development in wavelength-division optical networking

Summary form only given, as follows. Circuit- and packet-switch networks based on optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) offer great potential in allowing terabit network throughput with modest-speed-per-node electronic components and achieve great topological and protocol flexibility. Commercial grade components to realize such networks have become available. The properties and bottlenecks of such networks were discussed, and Rainbow-1, an experimental circuit-switched WDM network connecting up to 32 standard IBM desktop machines at 0.3 Gb/node, was described