The market for photonics in the 21/sup st/ century

Summary form only given. The optical communications industry has seen strong growth in the last 5 years due to the concurrence of several events. In particular, the rapid growth in the Internet accelerated demand for telecom capacity. Internet traffic is doubling every year, and users are now sending images and even video over the net, increasing the demand on capacity still further. Over half of all network traffic is now data, as opposed to voice communications, and this ratio is increasing rapidly. This shift to data-intensive traffic suggests that the traditional network architecture may no longer be effective for newly installed systems. Indeed, equipment suppliers are offering a variety of new products for the telecom providers, spurring new business in the components industries as well. The author discusses in more detail the driving forces, technical barriers, and market dynamics of optical communications as it enters the next decade.