On the cost, latency, and bandwidth of LIGHTNESS data center network architecture

Abstract

We investigate and compare the cost, bandwidth, and latency of the LIGHTNESS data center network (DCN) architecture adopting optical switching technologies with current DCN architectures based on electrical switching technologies. The studies include the cost and latency models of all the required opto-electronics (electronic switches, transceivers, cables) and optical (circuit and packet switches) components to build the DCN architectures. Numerical results show that the LIGHTNESS DCN architecture has the lowest cost due to the huge reduction of expensive transceivers. Moreover, the flat LIGHTNESS DCN architecture outperforms the multi-stage electronic DCN architecture in terms of latency, while the bisection bandwidth can be dynamically and flexibly reconfigured according to the required applications.