Optical Networks Hold the Promise of Incredible Speed and Efficiency

Researchers at Davis work on next-generation technology

By FLORENCE OLSEN

Davis, Calif.

If a conventional T1 network linked the University of California campus here to its medical center in Sacramento, a 15-minute, three-dimensional CAT scan would take 55 years to send. With a fiber-optic network and other light-carrying devices, the same transfer would...