Internet at speed of light on the horizon

For the first time, revolutionary internet technologies may enable internet traffic to travel at the speed of light, while being completely open and programmable, scientists say.

The current internet infrastructure is not able to support independent development and innovation at physical and network layer functionalities, protocols and services, while at the same time supporting the increasing bandwidth demands of changing and diverse applications.

The research introduces new concepts of open source optical internet enabled by optical white box and software defined network technologies.

''These technologies will hide complexity of optical networks and open them up for traditional programmers and application developers to create new type of internet applications taking advantages of the speed of light,'' said Reza Nejabati, from University of Bristol in UK.

''New internet technologies frequently emerge, but most of them rarely result in new and revolutionary internet applications,'' he said.

''The technologies suggested could pave the way for the creation of new internet services and applications not previously possible or disruptive,'' Nejabati said.

''The technologies could also potentially change the balance of power from vendors and operators that are monopolising the current internet infrastructure to wider users and service providers,'' he said.

The study was published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.

(Read more: Delivering the internet of the future - at the speed of light and open sourced)