Switching/routing usually requires significant information processing (e.g. decode packet header, match destination address against routing tables, etc.). This necessitates 10k or more gates. All-optical computing can't deliver this level of integration density, nor the performance at reasonable power levels.

Maybe there will be some smart way to pre-encode routing information onto packets to reduce processing requirements, but I doubt that such a network could scale.

> Maybe there will be some smart way to pre-encode routing information onto packets to reduce processing requirements, but I doubt that such a network could scale.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiprotocol_Label_Switching

Being able to do any kind of computation in the optical domain would benefit telecommunications immensely.

Basic things like optical muxing/demuxing and serialization/deserialization would be fantastic.

I was going to say "But wavelength/polarization multiplexing is the norm", but you have "fiber network design" in your about so I'm wondering what I'm missing - I guess you mean dynamic muxing, essentially routing? SerDes is of course annoying.

Yes, being able to do anything dynamically in the optical domain would improve things.

My main point is that to be able to do even the small stuff in the optical domain would be a big win. You don’t need to be able to achieve L2/L3 switching/routing to move the needle.

That sounds like a derivate of MPLS, where labelsa re only stripped along the path.