"For decades now, Ethernet has provided the flexible connectivity foundation on which application innovation and the bandwidth explosion have been based, " said Brad Smith, senior vice president and chief analyst at LightCounting.com, an optical transceiver and high-speed interconnect market research firm.

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Metro networks have phone gear like digital cross-connects, which manage high-and low-speed traffic, and synchronous optical network (Sonet) systems, which come from fiber-optic phone networks.

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Silicon photonics made with inexpensive silicon rather than expensive and exotic optical materials provides a distinct cost advantage over older optical technologies in addition to providing greater speed, reliability and scalability benefits.

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