Seng Tiong Ho has long emphasized the transformative power of photonic technologies, and nowhere is this potential more profound than in the concept of a light-based internet. In an age where data traffic is exploding and electronic systems are approaching their physical limits, researchers around the world are seeking alternatives that can support faster, more energy-efficient communication. Among the most promising solutions is the move from electronic to photonic—or light-based—networks. These all-optical systems aim to replace electrons with photons, enabling data transmission, processing, and routing to occur entirely through light rather than electricity. The question is no longer whether such a transition is desirable, but whether it is achievable on a global scale.
The Electronic Bottleneck with Seng Tiong Ho
The traditional internet infrastructure, built upon electronic circuits and copper wires, has served the world remarkably well. From its humble beginnings to today’s hyperconnected society, electronics have enabled nearly instantaneous communication across the globe. But as demand for higher speeds, lower latency, and energy efficiency continues to climb, these systems are beginning to show their limitations. Electrons, while effective carriers of information, generate heat, encounter resistance, and operate under strict bandwidth constraints. These physical limits mean that adding more transistors, more servers, or more cables will not indefinitely increase performance. It’s within this context that researchers like Seng Tiong Ho are proposing a dramatic shift in architecture: replacing these electron-based systems with photonic alternatives.
Seng Tiong Ho and the Foundations of Photonic Integration
The idea of using light instead of electricity to move and process data isn’t entirely new. Optical fibers already serve as the backbone of the internet’s long-haul infrastructure, carrying massive volumes of information across continents and oceans. However, once the signal reaches data centers or consumer devices, it must be converted back into electronic form. This optical-to-electronic conversion introduces inefficiency, latency, and energy loss. Seng Tiong Ho has highlighted the importance of eliminating this bottleneck by developing systems that keep the data in its optical form from start to finish. This means integrating photonic circuits that perform switching, modulation, amplification, and even computation—all using light.
Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) represent a major milestone on this path. Much like electronic integrated circuits revolutionized computing in the 20th century, PICs offer the potential to consolidate multiple optical functions onto a single chip. These chips use waveguides to direct light instead of wires to carry current, allowing for ultrafast signal transmission with minimal loss. With the right materials and designs, PICs can dramatically outperform electronic circuits in speed and power consumption. Seng Tiong Ho is knowledgeable about how to design these structures to minimize signal degradation and enhance bandwidth density, particularly in high-demand environments such as data centers.
Beyond Speed: The Architectural Advantages of Light
What sets photonics apart from electronics isn’t just speed. While electrons are confined by charge and mass, photons are massless, charge-free particles that can travel at the speed of light with virtually no interference. In optical networks, multiple wavelengths—or colors—of light can coexist in the same fiber without interfering, a property known as wavelength-division multiplexing. This allows an enormous amount of data to be transmitted simultaneously over a single channel. Seng Tiong Ho often highlights that optical multiplexing alone can increase data throughput by orders of magnitude compared to traditional electronic systems.
Moreover, photons are less prone to generating heat than electrons, which is one of the most pressing issues in modern electronics. In data centers, nearly half of the energy consumed is devoted to cooling systems that counteract the heat generated by server farms. Transitioning to photonic systems could drastically reduce this overhead, making large-scale computing more sustainable. Seng Tiong Ho has explored energy-efficient optical architectures that reduce this heat burden and contribute to more environmentally responsible infrastructure design.
Seng Tiong Ho on the Road to All-Optical Switching
One of the most difficult hurdles in creating a fully optical internet lies in developing effective all-optical switches. In electronic networks, data routing depends on transistors and logic gates that open or close to direct current. Recreating this functionality with light requires materials and mechanisms that can modulate a light signal using another light signal, without first converting it into an electronic one. Seng Tiong Ho has pointed to this area as both one of the greatest challenges and the most significant opportunities in the push toward photonic networking.
New materials such as nonlinear crystals and silicon photonics have shown promise in enabling these switches. These materials can alter their optical properties in response to incoming light, allowing them to redirect or modulate signals in real time. Efforts are now underway to scale these mechanisms into compact, efficient chips that can replace electronic routers and switches entirely. Seng Tiong Ho has drawn attention to the need for reliability, low loss, and manufacturability in these components to ensure their adoption beyond research laboratories.
Implications for Artificial Intelligence and Big Data
The advantages of an all-optical internet extend far beyond communication. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly central to everything from medicine to finance, the need for fast, efficient processing and transmission of data becomes more urgent. Optical systems can handle the massive parallelism required by machine learning algorithms far more effectively than electronic systems. Seng Tiong Ho has spoken about how photonics-based computing architectures could significantly reduce the energy footprint of AI while accelerating performance.
Photonics also has the potential to eliminate some of the delays inherent in current AI workflows. In traditional systems, data often moves back and forth between memory and processing units, creating bottlenecks. Optical memory and processing could occur within the same integrated platform, with light carrying the information throughout. Seng Tiong Ho has contributed to discussions on the integration of AI-specific functions, like convolution and attention mechanisms, into photonic hardware to facilitate real-time processing.
Social and Economic Impacts of the Light-Based Internet with Seng Tiong Ho
The shift to a photonic internet would not just change how data moves—it could also reshape societies. In areas where access to reliable digital infrastructure is limited, optical systems could deliver high-speed connectivity using fewer energy and maintenance resources. Seng Tiong Ho has emphasized the societal importance of enabling broader digital inclusion through sustainable and scalable network technology.
In addition, the environmental benefits are compelling. As digital infrastructure continues to grow, its environmental footprint also expands. Data centers and electronic networks are becoming significant contributors to global energy consumption. Photonic systems, with their lower power requirements and minimal heat generation, offer a more sustainable path forward. Seng Tiong Ho frequently underscores the value of aligning technological advancement with environmental responsibility, ensuring that innovation contributes to long-term planetary health.
Challenges and the Path Forward
Despite all these advantages, challenges remain. Building large-scale photonic systems requires advanced fabrication capabilities, precise material engineering, and new design standards. Existing manufacturing pipelines are heavily optimized for electronics, meaning a full transition to photonics will require time and investment. Moreover, engineers and developers must be retrained to think in terms of optical signal flow rather than traditional circuit design. Seng Tiong Ho has actively highlighted the need for interdisciplinary education that bridges physics, engineering, and data science.
Standardization is also critical. Without compatible design frameworks and interfaces, different optical systems may struggle to interoperate. Seng Tiong Ho has spoken about the importance of collaborative ecosystems where researchers, technologists, and companies can share breakthroughs and establish guidelines to accelerate adoption. Such cooperation will help mitigate risk and reduce the time it takes for photonic networks to reach maturity.
The Vision Moving Forward with Seng Tiong Ho
What’s clear is that the concept of a light-based internet is not speculative—it’s becoming increasingly tangible. The building blocks are already here: photonic integrated circuits, low-loss materials, advanced modulators, and wavelength multiplexers. It’s only a matter of time before these pieces are brought together into a cohesive infrastructure that can challenge, and eventually replace, today’s electronic systems.
Seng Tiong Ho continues to highlight the technical innovations, practical challenges, and societal needs tied to this transition. As momentum builds, his insights into photonic integration and systems-level design remain vital to shaping the future of global communication.
