An Ultra-Low-Latency Guaranteed-Rate Internet for Cloud Services

Abstract

An Enhanced-Internet network that provides ultra-low-latency guaranteed-rate (GR) communications for Cloud Services is proposed. The network supports two traffic classes, the Smooth and Best-Effort classes. Smooth traffic flows receive low-jitter GR service over virtual-circuit-switched (VCS) connections with negligible buffering and queueing delays, up to 100% link utilizations, deterministic end-to-end quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees, and improved energy efficiency. End-to-end delays are effectively reduced to the fiber time of flight. A new router scheduling problem called the Bounded Normalized-Jitter integer-programming problem is formulated. A fast polynomial-time approximate solution is presented, allowing TDM-based router schedules to be computed in microseconds. We establish that all admissible traffic demands in any packet-switched network can be simultaneously satisfied with GR-VCS connections, with minimal buffering. Each router can use two periodic TDM-based schedules to support GR-VCS connections, which are updated automatically when the router's traffic rate matrix changes. The design of a Silicon-Photonics all-optical packet switch with minimal buffering is presented. The Enhanced-Internet can: 1) reduce router buffer requirements by factors of ≥ 1000; 2) increase the Internet's aggregate capacity; 3) lower the Internet's capital and operating costs; and 4) lower greenhouse gas emissions through improved energy efficiency.