Abstract

Some years ago, forecasts of capacity demand growth in long-haul networks suggested that 10%/year growth rates would be very optimistic. This in turn led to serious debates as to whether there was any need for WDM at all. It is now apparent that these forecasts were flawed. Network traffic is exploding, especially that associated with data. While historical projections were based on voice traffic alone, the traffic in the network is now about half data and will soon be dominated by data.

© 1998 Optical Society of America