These systems are not only changing the way networks are configured, but will ultimately affect the way photonic and electronic devices are designed. Agilent Labs is investigating terabit-network architecture, technology, and components. The demand for wireless bandwidth is limited only by its cost. Agilent Labs researchers are developing wireless communications devices with improved bandwidth, and with reduced cost, size, weight, and power consumption. These improvements are being achieved by using advanced device and IC technologies, by breakthroughs in circuit designs, and by novel packaging and antenna designs.
Additional research is focused on distributed monitoring of cellular sites.
As deregulation continues and networks become more complex, local carriers must ensure that their networks continue to run smoothly as network traffic grows. Network control at the business level, monitoring and guaranteeing of service quality, and new ways of mining useful data to yield business information are also being studied. Long-term research is concerned with developing mechanisms to dynamically allocate network bandwidth and with using artificial intelligence to enable much more sophisticated network management. Management of wireless systems is becoming increasingly difficult as the use of wireless technology expands to include data and Internet access. Agilent Labs is investigating techniques for measuring and improving wireless network performance and creating tools to improve service deployment.