Nanotechnology Could be the Future of the Internet.

All of us should have by now experienced wired and wireless internet technology. Ever thought of internet running along a ray of lights? Nanotechnology may say yes it is possible to do just that.
Nanotechnology is the science, or is it art… of manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular scale.

By manipulating buckyballs (carbon atoms that look like soccer balls), Canadian researchers, led by Ted Sargent of University of Toronto, have devised a new polymer material that could be used to create optical switches, which are light based, to replace electronic network switches. The new discovery could lead to an Internet based entirely on light.

Traditionally, transmitting information from one high-speed network to another involves passing through slower, electronic switches and routers. Fiber-optic networks have dramatically accelerated the transmission of data on the Internet. However
electronics do not transport digital information that optical light do, which gives rise to what has been referred to as the electronics bottleneck on the Internet.

Nanotechnology aims to solve that problem. The new material designed by the researchers creates a clear smooth film that allows light particles to pick up one another’s patterns. This enables data to be carried at telecommunications wavelengths—the infrared colors of light used in fiber-optic cables. As a result of this capability, future optical switches may be able to relay a trillion operations per second as compared to today’s electronic switches which can only perform ten billion operations per second.

As mentioned by Ted, a professor in the electrical and computer engineering department at the University of Toronto,

“We have only shown that it’s possible to make a material that is essentially as good as physics will allow, now we have to make the actual switch and the network that uses these switches.”

Source [National Geographic Channel]