A hybrid optical packet and wavelength selective switching platform for high-performance data center networks

Lin Xu,Wenjia Zhang,Michal Lipson,Hugo L R Lira,Keren Bergman

doi:10.1364/oe.19.024258

Abstract

We propose and experimentally demonstrate for the first time a hybrid optical packet and wavelength selective switching platform for high-performance data center networks. This architecture based on cascaded silicon microrings and semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) supports wavelength reconfigurable packet and circuit switching, and is highly scalable, energy efficient and potentially integratable. By combining the wavelength-selective behavior of the microring and the broadband behavior of the SOA switch, we are able to achieve fast switching transitions, high extinction ratios, and low driving voltages, which are all requirements for future optical high-performance data center networks. Routing correctness and error-free operation (<10(-12)) are verified for both 10-Gb/s and 40-Gb/s packets and streaming data with format transparency.

Highlights

The tremendous growth in cloud computing applications is driving the creation of numerous data centers including mega-data centers (DCs) which can consist of over 100,000 servers [1]
Within the microring’s switching window, all the packets coming into the input port of the microring are routed to the through port where they are launched into the input port (In0) of the 2x2 semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) switch
The data egressing from the drop port of the microring is launched into the input port (In0) of the 2x2 SOA switch and routed to the output port (Out1) by established circuit

Summary

Introduction

The tremendous growth in cloud computing applications is driving the creation of numerous data centers including mega-data centers (DCs) which can consist of over 100,000 servers [1]. The optical interconnect platform (Fig. 1a) consists of optical multiplexers (Mux)/demultiplexers (Demux), circulators (Cir.), couplers and hybrid switching units which are each composed of a wavelength-selective switch (WSS) and a broadband switch In this design, a WSS photonics switch partitions an incoming set of wavelengths (the multiplexed WDM signals from server racks) through the common port into different output ports. The proposed platform is realizable using silicon microring and semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) based switches Both types of switches are compact in size and capable of routing high-bandwidth wavelength-parallel optical messages in ns-scale switching speed through a photonic interconnect network [17,18,19].

Architecture and devices

Experiment setup

Results

Conclusion