ABSTRACT
Four decades ago, G.R. Moore made a prediction, which is now the famous Moore’s law. He predicted that the number of integrated transistors on a chip would be doubled every 18 months. This is true even now, and is expected to be valid for another decade at least. Moore’s law is applied not only to study the growth of the semiconductor industry but also to predict the growth of data traf›c. Data traf›c is projected to grow exponentially, as shown in Figure 1.1a [1]. This is mainly driven by the emergence of high-bandwidthconsuming applications and services such as Internet protocol television (IPTV), ›le sharing, and high-de›nition television (HDTV). Besides, the expansion of major telecommunications infrastructure in the Far East (China, India) and in developing countries also results in huge data traf›c.
