High performance flat data center networks based on scalable flow-controlled optical switches

Abstract

We present a novel high performance flat data center network employing bufferless and distributed fast (sub-microsecond) optical switches with wavelength, space, and time switching operation. A 4×4 prototypes optical switches based on off-the-shelf components has been employed in the experiments to assess the data center network in terms of latency and packet loss. Experimental results and investigation study show less than 10⁁-5 packet loss and 640ns end-to-end latency with 0.4 load and 16-packet size buffer. Numerical investigation on the performance of the systems when the port number of the optical switch is scaled to 32×32 system indicate that more than 1000 ToRs each with Terabit/s interface can be interconnected providing a Petabit/s capacity.