Rigid fixed-grid wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks can no longer keep up with the emerging bandwidth-hungry and highly dynamic services in an efficient manner. As the available ...spectrum in optical fibers becomes occupied and is approaching fundamental limits, the research community has focused on seeking more advanced optical transmission and networking solutions that utilize the available bandwidth more effectively. To this end, the flexible/elastic optical networking paradigm has emerged as a way to offer efficient use of the available optical resources. In this work, we provide a comprehensive view of the different pieces composing the "flexible networking puzzle" with special attention given to capturing the occurring interactions between different research fields. Only when these interrelations are clearly defined, an optimal network-wide solution can be offered. Physical layer technological aspects, network optimization for flexible networks, and control plane aspects are examined. Furthermore, future research directions and open issues are discussed.
Two general approaches have been followed for solving the problem of upstream grant scheduling and wavelength assignment in hybrid WDM/TDMA EPON networks, i.e. the offline and the online one. The ...latter boasts significantly lower frame delay performance in all cases. Nevertheless, we show that simplistic online schemes do not utilize wavelength resources as efficiently as possible, especially in the case of large differential distances of ONUs from the OLT. We propose and analyze several low- and higher-complexity solutions to overcome those inefficiencies, leading to improved utilization of network capacity and reduced frame delay. All schemes are evaluated and compared using computer simulations.
Large scale data centers (DC) and high performance computing (HPC) systems require more and more computing power at higher energy efficiency. They are already consuming megawatts of power, and a ...linear extrapolation of trends reveals that they may eventually lead to unrealistic power consumption scenarios in order to satisfy future requirements (e.g., Exascale computing). Conventional complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-based electronic interconnects are not expected to keep up with the envisioned future board-to-board and chip-to-chip (within multi-chip-modules) interconnect requirements because of bandwidth-density and power-consumption limitations. However, low-power and high-speed optics-based interconnects are emerging as alternatives for DC and HPC communications; they offer unique opportunities for continued energy-efficiency and bandwidth-density improvements, although cost is a challenge at the shortest length scales. Plasmonics-based interconnects on the other hand, due to their extremely small size, offer another interesting solution for further scaling operational speed and energy efficiency. At the device-level, CMOS compatibility is also an important issue, since ultimately photonics or plasmonics will have to be co-integrated with electronics. In this paper, we survey the available literature and compare the aforementioned interconnect technologies, with respect to their suitability for high-speed and energy-efficient on-chip and off-chip communications. This paper refers to relatively short links with potential applications in the following interconnect distance hierarchy: local group of racks, board to board, module to module, chip to chip, and on chip connections. We compare different interconnect device modules, including low-energy output devices (such as lasers, modulators, and LEDs), photodetectors, passive devices (i.e., waveguides and couplers) and electrical circuitry (such as laserdiode drivers, modulator drivers, transimpedance, and limiting amplifiers). We show that photonic technologies have the potential to meet the requirements for selected HPC and DC applications in a shorter term. We also present that plasmonic interconnect modules could offer ultra-compact active areas, leading to high integration bandwidth densities, and low device capacitances allowing for ultra-high bandwidth operation that would satisfy the application requirements further into the future.
As traffic volumes carried by optical networks continue to grow by tens of percent year over year, we are rapidly approaching the capacity limit of the conventional communication band within a ...single-mode fiber. New measures such as elastic optical networking, spectral extension to multi-bands, and spatial expansion to additional fiber overlays or new fiber types are all being considered as potential solutions, whether near term or far. In this tutorial paper, we survey the photonic switching hardware solutions in support of evolving optical networking solutions enabling capacity expansion based on the proposed approaches. We also suggest how reconfigurable add/drop multiplexing nodes will evolve under these scenarios and gauge their properties and relative cost scalings. We identify that the switching technologies continue to evolve and offer network operators the required flexibility in routing information channels in both the spectral and spatial domains. New wavelength-selective switch designs can now support greater resolution, increased functionality and packing density, as well as operation with multiple input and output ports. Various switching constraints can be applied, such as routing of complete spatial superchannels, in an effort to reduce the network cost and simplify the routing protocols and managed pathway count. However, such constraints also reduce the transport efficiency when the network is only partially loaded, and may incur fragmentation. System tradeoffs between switching granularity and implementation complexity and cost will have to be carefully considered for future high-capacity SDM–WDM optical networks. In this work, we present the first cost comparisons, to our knowledge, of the different approaches in an effort to quantify such tradeoffs.
We consider the problem of serving traffic in a spectrum-flexible optical network, where the spectrum allocated to an end-to-end connection can change so as to adapt to the time-varying required ...transmission rate. In the proposed framework, each connection is assigned a route and is allocated a reference frequency over that route, using an appropriate Routing and Spectrum Allocation (RSA) algorithm, but the spectrum it utilizes around the reference frequency is allowed to expand and contract to match source rate fluctuations. We propose and analyze three spectrum expansion/contraction (SEC) policies for modifying the spectrum allocated to each connection. The first policy, named the Constant Spectrum Allocation (CSA) policy, allocates a number of spectrum slots for exclusive use by each connection. We also present two policies that enable the dynamic sharing of spectrum slots among connections, named the Dynamic High Expansion-Low Contraction (DHL) and the Dynamic Alternate Direction (DAD) policy. We give exact formulas for calculating the blocking probability for a connection and for the whole network under the CSA policy and provide corresponding approximate analyses under the DHL and DAD policies. We also present a simple iterative RSA algorithm that uses the developed blocking models so as to minimize the average blocking of the network.
We evaluate the advantages of using the extra dimension introduced by space-division multiplexing (SDM) for dynamic bandwidth-allocation purposes in a flexible optical network. In that respect, we ...aim to compare spectral and spatial super-channel (Sp-Ch) allocation policies in an SDM network based on bundles of SMFs (to eliminate coupling between spatial dimensions from the study) and to investigate the role of modulation format selection in the blocking probability performance with an emphasis on the spectral efficiency (SE)/reach tradeoff for different multiline-rate scenarios, created either by changing the number of sub-channels (Sb-Ch), or by employing different modulation formats. Our network-performance results show that DP-8QAM -in a multichannel (MC) single-modulation-format system assuming ITU-T 50-GHz WDM Sb-Ch spectrum occupation-offers the best compromise between SE and optical reach for both spectral and spatial Sp-Ch allocation policies. They also reveal that an MC multimodulation-format system improves the network performance, particularly for spectral Sp-Ch allocation with Sb-Ch spectrum occupation of 37.5 GHz on the 12.5-GHz grid. Additionally, as another important contribution of the paper, we investigate, for spatial Sp-Ch allocation, the performance of several SDM switching options: independent switching (InS), which offers highest flexibility, joint-switching (JoS), which routes all spatial modes as a single entity, and fractional-joint switching, which separates out the spatial modes into sub-sets of spatial modes which are routed independently. JoS is proved to offer a similar performance to that of InS for particular network load profiles, while allowing a significant reduction in the number of wavelength-selective switches.
A Survey on Optical Interconnects for Data Centers Kachris, Christoforos; Tomkos, Ioannis
IEEE Communications surveys and tutorials,
2012-Fourth Quarter, 2012-00-00, Letnik:
14, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Data centers are experiencing an exponential increase in the amount of network traffic that they have to sustain due to cloud computing and several emerging web applications. To face this network ...load, large data centers are required with thousands of servers interconnected with high bandwidth switches. Current data center networks, based on electronic packet switches, consume excessive power to handle the increased communication bandwidth of emerging applications. Optical interconnects have gained attention recently as a promising solution offering high throughput, low latency and reduced energy consumption compared to current networks based on commodity switches. This paper presents a thorough survey on optical interconnects for next generation data center networks. Furthermore, the paper provides a qualitative categorization and comparison of the proposed schemes based on their main features such as connectivity and scalability. Finally, the paper discusses the cost and the power consumption of these schemes that are of primary importance in the future data center networks.
In optical transmitters generating multi-level constellations, optical modulators are preceded by Electronic Digital-to-Analog-Converters (eDAC). It is advantageous to use eDAC-free Optical Analog to ...Digital Converters (oDAC) to directly convert digital bitstreams into multilevel PAM/QAM optical signals. State-of-the-art oDACs are based on Segmented Mach-Zehnder-Modulators (SEMZM) using multiple modulation segments strung along the MZM waveguides to serially accumulate binary-modulated optical phases. Here we aim to assess performance limits of the Serial oDACs (SEMZM) and introduce an alternative improved Multi-Parallel oDAC (MPoDAC) architecture, in particular based on arraying multiple binary-driven MZMs in parallel: Multi-parallel MZM (MPMZM) oDAC. We develop generic methodologies of oDAC specification and optimization encompassing both SEMZM and MPMZM options in Direct-Detection (DD) and Coherent-Detection (COH) implementations. We quantify and compare intrinsic performance limits of the various serial/parallel DD/COH subclasses for general constellation orders, comparing with the scant prior-work on the multi-parallel option. A key finding: COH-MPMZM is the only class synthesizing ‘perfect’ (equi-spaced max-full-scale) constellations while maximizing energy-efficiency-SEMZM/MPMZM for DD are less accurate when maximal energy-efficiency is required. In particular, we introduce multiple variants of PAM4|8 DD and QAM16|64 COH MPMZMs, working out their accuracy vs. energy-efficiency-and-complexity tradeoffs, establishing their format-reconfigurability (format-flexible switching of constellation order and/or DD/COH).
Spatially integrated switching architectures have been recently investigated in an attempt to provide switching capability for networks based on spatial division multiplexing (SDM) fibers, as well as ...to reduce the implementation cost. These architectures rely on the following switching paradigms, furnishing different degrees of spectral and spatial switching granularity: independent switching, which offers full spatial-spectral flexibility; joint-switching, which treats all spatial modes as a single entity; and fractional-joint switching, whereby subgroups of spatial modes are switched together as independent units. The last two paradigms are categorized as spatial group switching solutions since the spatial resources (modes, cores, or single-mode fibers) are switched in groups. In this paper, we compare the performance (in terms of spectral utilization, data occupancy, and network switching infrastructure cost) of the SDM switching paradigms listed above for varying spatial and spectral switching granularities in a network planning scenario. The spatial granularity is related to the grouping of the spatial resources, whereas the spectral granularity depends on the channel baud rate and the spectral resolution supported by wavelength selective switches (WSS). We consider two WSS technologies for handling of the SDM switching paradigms: 1) the current WSS realization, 2) WSS technology with a factor-two resolution improvement. Bundles of single-mode fibers are assumed across all links as a near-term SDM solution. Results show that the performance of all switching paradigms converge as the size of the traffic demands increases, but finer spatial and spectral granularity can lead to significant performance improvement for small traffic demands. Additionally, we demonstrate that spectral switching granularity must be adaptable with respect to the size of the traffic in order to have a globally optimum spectrum utilization in an SDM network. Finally, we calculate the number of required WSSs and their port count for each of the switching architectures under evaluation, and estimate the switching-related cost of an SDM network, assuming the current WSS realization as well as the improved resolution WSS technology.
Submarine networks have evolved alongside terrestrial ones over the past several decades. Although there are similarities between these two network categories (e.g., the need to cover ultra-long-haul ...distances and transport huge amounts of data), there are also important differences that have dictated their different evolutionary paths. Space division multiplexing (SDM) promises to be the ultimate solution to cover future capacity needs and overcome problems of both networks. In this work, we review recent and future submarine technologies, focusing on all critical sectors: cable systems, amplifiers’ technology, submarine network architectures, electrical power- feeding issues, economics, and security. Such an analysis, with the level of detail provided in this manuscript, is not available in the literature so far. We first overview all recently announced SDM-based submarine cable systems, compare their performance (capacity-distance product), and analyze the reasons that led to the first SDM submarine deployment. Also, we report up-to-date experimental results of submarine transmission demonstrations and perform a qualitative categorization that relies on their features. Moreover, based on all latest advances and our study findings, we try to predict the future of SDM submarine optical networks mainly in the fields of fiber types, fiber counts per cable, fiber-coating variants, modulation formats, as well as the type and layout structure of optical amplifiers. More specifically, results show that SDM can offer higher capacities (in order of Pb/s) compared to its counterparts, supported by novel network technologies: pump-farming amplification schemes, high counts up to 50 parallel fiber pairs, thinner fiber coating variants (200 μm), and optimum spectral efficiency (2–3 b/s/Hz). Finally, we conclude that tradeoffs between capacity and implementation complexity and cost will have to be carefully considered for future deployments of submarine cable systems.
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