Aug 19 2010
Researchers at MIT have developed a new flow switching technology that may provide an affordable solution for high-speed data access and internet.
According to Vincent Chan, computer science and electrical engineering Professor at MIT, who spearheaded the research team, substituting the electrical signals in the routers with optical signals will increase the internet speed as much as 100 to 1000 times and will also reduce energy consumption.
In present generation of routers, the incoming optical signals are changed to electrical signals. Such signals can be saved in the memory until they are processed. The electrical signals are transformed back to fiber-optic signals so that the signals can be transmitted back. However, this process consumes more energy and time. The flow switching technology removes the need of such conversions.
Enderle Group’s Principal Analyst, Rob Enderle, stated that high-speed internet could revolutionize the hosted computing industry to a great extent.
However, the analysts observed that it is not feasible to replace the existing routers with the latest technology because of high cost factor.
Source: http://web.mit.edu