Abstract

In the future the public network may come to resemble a large number of networked computers rather than the traditional picture of interconnected switching and transmission equipment controlled by signaling systems. New applications and services using this network will generate high volumes of bursty traffic having the following characteristics and needs: short message durations (fractions of a second); extremely rapid call capture and close down; network latency dominated by optical transmission delay; rapidly fluctuating bandwidth demands; low predictability. A future network capable of supporting such extreme traffic diversity, with fast reaction times, will be radically different from both the networks of today and the familiar circuit-based photonic networks currently being developed in most laboratories.

© 1995 Optical Society of America