Dynamic Optical Data Center Network Load Balancing and Resource Allocation

Abstract

We highlight the advantages of dynamic wavelength allocation and path rerouting in hybrid optical flow-switched data center networks compared with static electronic packet-switched data center networks. Current electronic packet-switched networks perform routing based on lookup tables and shortest path routing over high speed optical connections. However, load balancing and path rerouting are not designed in coordination with the optical data plane. In this work, we design and analyze the performance of load balancing and resource allocation in hybrid flow data center architectures. In the hybrid flow architecture, the transport layer and control plane are responsible for load balancing, congestion control and reliable data delivery in wavelength division multiplexed networks. The transport layer abstracts the underlying network and data link layers from user applications. Applications are unaware of whether flows are transmitted via the electronic data plane, optical data plane, or both, where the relevant metric for applications is transaction delay. We show that the data center architecture that minimizes delay in the presence of elephant flows and dynamic loads is the hybrid flow architecture with dynamic resource allocation.