Optical Transparency and Optical Opacityin Future All-optical Packet Switched Network

"Transparent network" and "all-optical network" are not synonyms. Optical transparency has to be sacrificed in optical logic elements. The paper presents author’s original view on future (all) optical packet-switched network which is based on a clear distinction within dual nature of optical signals: analogue and transparent features of the signal in optical frequency domain from one side, and digital characteristics of temporal signals and opaque solutions for all-optical logics from the other one. The imminence of breakdown of the “transparency paradigm” in the all-optical packet switched network for a variety of networking functions is pointed out.