The company has a new optical switch that was made from materials developed by its advanced materials unit.

This requires each optical switch to broadcast recent usage information periodically.

The new lasers operate at extremely low power levels and therefore would be well suited as light sources for future optical switches, the researchers said.

"The mirrors don't care how big the signal is so we can build an optical switch that is data independent."

Resulting from its geometry, the optical switch is sensitive to the angle of the incident beam.

The optical switch could potentially resolve this issue using the switching mechanism described above.

And then the optical switch companies' demand is so very strong, even with all the telecom blowups.

The device may find uses in optical switches for future super-fast computer boards that use light instead of electrons.

Without such programs, a computer is nothing but a box full of electronic or optical switches.

Bell Laboratories is now selling the new optical switches for use in independent research projects.