Squeezing More Bandwidth Out of Fiber

EigenHombre writes "The New York Times reports on efforts underway to squeeze more bandwidth out of the fiber optic connections which form the backbone of the Internet. With traffic doubling every two years, the limits of current networks are getting close to saturating. The new technology from Lucent-Alcatel uses the polarization and phase of light (in addition to intensity) to double or quadruple current speeds."

Re:Hmmm...

[hedwards]

Or figure out a way of getting cyber criminals off the net. The problem for quite some time has been that they'll suck up as much bandwidth as they can get, and since they don't pay for it, there's little reason to actually throttle back their operations.

Re:Dark Fiber

[John Hasler]

Because the dark fiber is where it is, not where it is needed. One of the fibers that crosses my land runs from Spring Valley, Wisconsin to Elmwood, Wisconsin. Is that going to help with a bandwidth shortage between New York and Chicago?

Re:Close to Shannon limit

[DigitAl56K]

Eh, will we say soon: "Life is too short to surf using 1 Gbit/sec"?

Seriously... damn Flash websites...

Re:Hmmm...

[morgan_greywolf]

Hey! That's a good idea! Let's just shutdown the main reasons people are using high-speed internet technologies: streaming audio and video. And shutting down BitTorrent obviously wouldn't hurt.

Then we'll party like it's 1997!

Re:Hmmm...

[morgan_greywolf]

Aside from a total economic disaster, that is.

Re:Hmmm...

[xda]

Instead of letting usage drive innovation we should just use less? that is the stupidest thing I have heard in a while, sorry.

Let's stop and think what people are downloading via TPB... music, movies, media in general. if your gripe is that the legality of these file transfers is in question let's assume that in the near future everyone is downloading content legitimately. What then?

You dumb asses are taking an interesting article about cutting edge network technology and ruining it with your stupid opinions about things that don't matter. The music and video is going to keep coming, legal or not.

Re:If you squeeze glass it flows

[chtit_draco]

My Materials class in 1972 was very clear, Glass at normal temperatures can be classified as a liquid. ergo, over time it moves. This Medieval glass is considerably thicker at the bottom than the top.

Talk about the bleeding obvious........... sigh.

This Medieval glass is thicker at the bottom because of its fabrication process. Theoretically it should indeed "flow", but the relaxation time is just way too long for it to become noticeable in a matter of centuries...

Source : 2008 polymer class / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass#Behavior_of_antique_glass [wikipedia.org]

Interesting, but...

[Bureaucromancer]

Nice work they're doing, but nothing is going to get us around the need for new infrastructure. As much as the telecos are trying to deny it, we are going to need another major round of long distance fiber installations before the global network anything like stabilizes. Actually, I would draw a comparison to the British railway system in the 19th century (flawed but some interesting points in it), particularly with reference to the boom bust cycle (including apparent over construction early on that actually goes over capacity quite soon, and eventual REAL massive over investment and big collapses and consolidation). Not really sure if we want that outcome, but it seems like a reasonable parallel in some ways; on the one hand massive overbuilding would be nice for users, for awhile at least, but as it is we need to be breaking telecom monopolies, not creating more through collapses and consolidtation...

Re:Hmmm...

[flappinbooger]

Video on Demand is exhibited nicely now by the likes of Roku, Netflix and Hulu as well as in a lesser way the major networks who stream some programming online.

Anyone who doesn't see VOD as the future is daft, the bandwidth must increase and broadband internet must get to the rural areas of the US.