Optical Memory Could Speed Up the Internet

ananyo writes "Bits of data travelling the internet have a tough commute — they bounce back and forth between optical signal lines for efficient transmission and electrical signal lines for processing. All-optical routers would be more energy efficient, but their development has been hindered by a lack of optical memory devices. Now, researchers have developed just such a device (journal article abstract), paving the way towards a faster, more energy-efficient internet. The devices are based on optical cavities that can be switched between light-transmitting and light-blocking states to construct digital signals. Researchers have been working on such devices for several years, but previous versions used too much power and could not retain data long enough. The new memory cells use just 30 nanowatts of power, 300 times less than previous designs, and can retain data for one microsecond — long enough to support processing." (See also this paper on all-optical swtiches by four of the same authors.)

The heart of the "memory"

[arnoldo.j.nunez]

From the Nature News link:

When a particular wavelength of light shines on the cell, the material’s refractive index changes so that it either will or will not transmit a pulse of light, to create either a "1" or "0" bit. Another light pulse can reverse it. A second laser provides constant background light, called bias, which helps the memory cell maintain its state.

So the key is that the medium is able to change its refractive index sufficiently so that there is total external reflection apparently (0) and (almost) complete transmittance (1). Thus, the medium's optical properties (index of refraction which is ultimately a measure of the speed of light in that medium due to the material's permittivity and permeability) dictates its nonvolatile memory applications. You change the medium's optical properties itself with a "write" laser.

The "read" laser (which they call bias but is a bit confusingly used to me) allows you to read off the "memory value" (really just transmittance as a function of the index of refraction set again by the "write" laser).

So the power consumption comes from using two lasers. So it makes me wonder, can you cut down the power requirements by using an LED with a monochromatic wavelength filter? Sure it won't be very efficient in getting a single wavelength, but perhaps you don't need that much optical energy?

How many bits can they store?

[Animats]

The article skips over the issue of how many bits they can store. It does indicate that numbers > 1 have been achieved, but RAM in megabit, let alone gigabit size, seems to be a long way off.

There have been a few optical switches with fiber optic delay loops. If a packet comes in and the outgoing link is busy, the packet is shunted to a delay loop for one packet time. This works best if the packets are all the same size, like ATM, but it's been made to work with variable sized packets. So far, there's not much commercial technology in the area. Lots of papers, though. People have been working on this problem for over a decade, and there's a little progress each year.

A few bits of pure optical storage and logic will help. If there's enough to handle packet routing and tags, a useful switch can be all-optical, even if storing the data packets themselves in "optical RAM" isn't feasible.