The race is on to make the Internet run at the speed of light. The explosion of voice, video streams and data being transmitted over the Internet and other networks has left current networking technologies, based on old-fashioned copper wires, straining to keep up. Communications companies have decided that high-capacity fiber optics are their main hope for feeding the insatiable appetite for more bandwidth. And what they can't make themselves, they aren't hesitating to buy. The result is escalating price tags or stock values for start-ups with the right optical networking products.
Traditional networks transmit voice and data over copper lines using electric waves.
Optical networks covert that same information into pulses of light that travel over thin fiber optic cables. Companies like optical networks because they are faster, cheaper and can carry much larger quantities of traffic. DWDM takes the beam of light on a fiber optic cable and splits it into different colors, which can each carry a separate stream of data or video. This creates a dramatic increase in the amount of traffic a single fiber optic cable can carry. Communications companies believe this represents their best hope for keeping up with the growth in Internet traffic.