Spin-off company hopes to be first with petabit router

17 Jun 2002

Researchers from the Photonic Networks Research Centre at the UK's University of Essex have set up a spin-off company to develop all-optical network routers based on micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS).
Called Ilotron, the company claims its technology will allow it to be the first to bring a petabit-capacity optical router to market.

Chris Lilly, formerly technical director of international transmission activities at British telecom giant BT and now managing director of Ilotron said, "We have a unique network architecture which makes our equipment scaleable up to petabit capacity. Our systems will be based on micro-mirror technology sourced from various companies including Optical Micro-Machines (OMM) of the US."
He added that he was also evaluating bubble-jet technology such as Agilent's champagne switch to see if it had any advantages over the MEMS the company was buying.