Futuristic photonic information systems

It seems like just yesterday that 10 Gb/s (OC-192) transmission was the norm in data rates with slower data rates disappearing! The particular bit-rate jump to 40 Gb/s (OC-768) is not a trivial task. Electronic designers now face serious complexities as they push the technology-to the limit. Issues such as chromatic dispersion and polarization mode dispersion are placing more stringent requirements on fiber optics and associated components. The requirement to gather and transfer data at faster and faster rates has spurned an evolution in the thought processes of Photonic engineers. It appears that to handle the ever-increasing bandwidths, Photonic techniques are the way to go! Sophisticated photonic analog-to-digital conversion systems are now being designed at Air Force government laboratories. Only time will tell if these designs can handle the voluminous amounts of data!.