Today\'s commercial optical communication exploits the fact that light can
carry lots of bits over a long distance in a single strand of fiber. Optical
transmission line systems capable of sending multiple terabits of data over
thousands of kilometers are commercially available today, providing point-to-point
links. The switching functions, however, has been traditionally done in the
electrical domain, after converting the bits into electrical signal. As the total
traffic on the optical network grows, switching function becomes costly bottleneck
in operating such networks. Networking at optical layer becomes very attractive
under those circumstances, and MEMS technology provides flexible manipulation of
optical signal that allows the realization of such network.
On the research front, quantum communication that exploits the quantum mechanical
nature of photons to either communicate securely (quantum key distribution) or
transport quantum bits of information (quantum teleportation), is starting to move
from pure scientific curiosity to practical applications. I would like to discuss
key devices that enhance the quality of quantum communication, and how \"classical\"
MEMS-based systems can play a crucial role in building quantum communication
networks.