Abstract

Unprecedented levels of device connectivity and the emergence of futuristic digital services are driving fundamental changes to underlying fixed and wireless data transport networks. Projected bandwidth requirements, coupled with increased network centralization and virtualization, will lead to the convergence of data-center, fixed and wireless systems, and a greater onus being placed on the optical routing/transport portion of these networks. Such converged networks will require the development of optical technologies capable of servicing a multitude of network user types. In this work, we propose the use of a Silicon Photonic (SiP) space-and-wavelength selective switch fabric as a flexible wavelength provisioning platform for converged optical networks. The envisaged converged network is presented and an experimental test-bed which demonstrates flexible Cloud Radio Access Networking (C-RAN), using a 4 × 4 micro-ring resonator based switch, is described. Successful provisioning and transmission of Wavelength Division Multiplexed (WDM) based analog Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) services, over 10 km of fiber, in the converged test-bed is demonstrated and evaluated in terms of the received Bit Error Rate (BER) and Error Vector Magnitude (EVM). Furthermore, the wavelength multi-casting capabilities of the SiP switch is shown to enable dynamic resource allocation in the optical domain, and this is highlighted through the experimental implementation and evaluation of two C-RAN use cases - representing high and low mobile traffic demand scenarios.

Highlights

  • E NHANCED mobile connectivity, and the proliferation of smart devices, continues to drive global internet traffic growth

  • As the mobile landscape moves towards ultra-dense deployment, the optical X-haul becomes key for supporting scalability and flexibility in delivering a multitude of new high-bandwidth services, including Virtual/Augmented Reality (VR/AR) and Autonomous Vehicle (AV) control

  • We have previously demonstrated multi-casting functionality on up to 3 output ports of a Silicon Photonic (SiP) Microring Resonators (MRR) based switch enabled by the development of a scalable software defined control plane [31]

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

E NHANCED mobile connectivity, and the proliferation of smart devices, continues to drive global internet traffic growth. As the mobile landscape moves towards ultra-dense deployment, the optical X-haul becomes key for supporting scalability and flexibility in delivering a multitude of new high-bandwidth services, including Virtual/Augmented Reality (VR/AR) and Autonomous Vehicle (AV) control To meet these challenges, advances in flexible optical networking can be harnessed by. The augmentation of data center (DC) networks continues to facilitate the development and provisioning of powerful cloud-based mobile services to end-users It follows that DCs have been proposed as a suitable location for the placement of centralized C-RAN computing equipment [7], [8]. The MRR based switch, which was designed for flexible DC interconnects, is shown to facilitate wavelength multi-casting/sharing among fronthaul links indicating the switch’s potential to support dynamic converged network optimization, in the optical domain

ENVISAGED CONVERGED OPTICAL NETWORK
OPTICAL SWITCH FABRIC
Use Cases
Optical System
Multi-Cast Operation
Analog Radio-Over-Fiber Modulation
Use Case Implementation
Performance
RoF Technologies for Converged Optical Networking
CONCLUSION
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