By Steve Alten
I just read about a 75-year-old woman in Karlstad, Sweden who had a 40-gigabit per second Internet connection installed in her house. Karlstad Stadsnät in conjunction with Cisco installed the prototype to show the potential of fiber optics in residential usage. 40 Gb/s is enough to download an entire DVD in 2 seconds or to access 1,500 high definition HDTV channels simultaneously.
So how did such blazing performance affect Sigbritt Löthberg’s life? Did she become the multimedia envy of the block? I’m afraid that would be a big “no”. She primarily used the excessive heat generated by the networking equipment to dry her laundry. She’s looking forward to a planned 100 Gb/s upgrade that is being planned so she can dry her neighbor’s laundry too.
It’s easy to overlook the excess heat generated by networking switches, even if it’s based on fiber optics instead of copper. A data center can be designed to handle the load, but Sigbritt’s experience is a humorous reminder of how wasteful of energy network switches can be.
Systems based on Lightfleet DBOI technology use much less energy than conventional switches. If your primary goal is to dry your clothes, by all means, stick with the status quo!