CUDOS ((Centre for Ultra-high bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems) recently announced a breakthrough in development of the basis for optical switching and routing to be carried out at 640Gbps.

The device uses a particular combination of materials and configuration in what is known as a planar waveguide to "steer" light very quickly in the desired directions, without the necessity to convert to electronics first. This is the "holy grail" of optical engineering, and removes the "roadblocks" in the backbone networks that comprise the Internet.