Silicon Photonic Switch Fabrics in Computer Communications Systems

Lee, Benjamin G.; Dupuis, N.; Pepeljugoski, P.; Schares, Laurent; Budd, R.; Bickford, Justin R.; Schow, Clint L.

doi:10.1109/jlt.2014.2371616

Cited by 54 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…These range from thermo-optic and electrooptic methods for controlling loss, gain, and refractive index through the electrostatic movement of waveguides. A broad range of established techniques using interferometric and gated switch elements have also been reported [16][17][18] . Here we focus specifically on switch circuits that can be scaled in capacity and connectivity.…”

Section: Monolithic Optical Switch Architecturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Integrated optical switch matrices for packet data networks

Stabile

Albores-Mejia

Rohit³

et al. 2016

Microsyst Nanoeng

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Integrated circuit technologies are enabling intelligent, chip-based, optical packet switch matrices. Rapid real-time reconfigurability at the photonic layer using integrated circuit technologies is expected to enable cost-effective, energy-efficient, and transparent data communications. InP integrated photonic circuits offer high-performance amplifiers, switches, modulators, detectors, and de/multiplexers in the same wafer-scale processes. The complexity of these circuits has been transformed as the process technologies have matured, enabling component counts to increase to many hundreds per chip. Active-passive monolithic integration has enabled switching matrices with up to 480 components, connecting 16 inputs to 16 outputs. Integrated switching matrices route data streams of hundreds of gigabits per second. Multi-path and packet time-scale switching have been demonstrated in the laboratory to route between multiple fibre connections. Wavelength-granularity routing and monitoring is realised inside the chip. In this paper, we review the current status in InP integrated photonics for optical switch matrices, paying particular attention to the additional on-chip functions that become feasible with active component integration. We highlight the opportunities for introducing intelligence at the physical layer and explore the requirements and opportunities for cost-effective, scalable switching.Keywords: large-scale integration; optical switching devices; optoelectronics; photonic integrated circuits In turn, this is leading to unsustainable energy usage and an increasing complexity in network control 2-4 . Optical packet routing and switching technologies offer the prospect of highly efficient networking that is attuned to packet-based traffic flows 4 . However, to date the underlying photonic hardware has not proved sufficiently scalable, and the physical layer performance has been impeded by the analogue nature of the underlying photonic components.Photonic switch matrices and wavelength-selective switches already provide energy-efficient connectivity at the highest bandwidths for circuit-provisioned time-scales. The optical switching engines that are now being deployed in telecom networks and data centre networks are based on slow (millisecond) circuitswitching technologies that leverage micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) 5,6 and liquid crystal on silicon 7,8 switch elements. 3D MEMS systems now allow for connectivity between many hundreds of fibre connections 9,10 . The combination of broadband photonic switches and wavelength-selective diffractive optical elements offers even higher connectivity. However, the use of surface normal micro-optics introduces considerable assembly complexity as the connectivity scales. The switching speeds do not support packet-based traffic at the optical layer.Planar photonic integrated circuits have long held the promise of high-speed broadband connectivity with mass-manufactureable microchips 11 , but only recently has the technology

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Section: Monolithic Optical Switch Architecturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, critical phase matching is required for broadband operation. A need for on-chip amplification has been identified for further scaling in connectivity 18 . The cross-point architecture [31][32][33][34][35] , which uses an array of orthogonal input and output guides, is shown schematically in Figure 1b.…”

Section: Monolithic Optical Switch Architecturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated optical switch matrices for packet data networks

Stabile

Albores-Mejia

Rohit³

et al. 2016

Microsyst Nanoeng

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“…There is considerable research into increasing the port count of different flavors of optical switches [1,2]. It would be helpful to system designers and component researchers to have a clearer view of the goals and trade offs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…MEMS based switches with more than three hundred ports are already available, however, they suffer from low switching speed. Integrated optics-based ultra-fast switches [2], in contrast, are fundamentally capable of sub-nanosecond switching times. Recent results indicate that 32x32 optical switches based on silicon photonics ring resonators, supporting 20x10Gb/s parallel (WDM) signals, are feasible without recourse to intermediate amplification [1].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Design Methodology for Optimizing Optical Interconnection Networks in High Performance Systems

Rumley

Glick

Hammond

et al. 2015

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

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Abstract. Modern high performance computers connect hundreds of thousands of endpoints and employ thousands of switches. This allows for a great deal of freedom in the design of the network topology. At the same time, due to the sheer numbers and complexity involved, it becomes more challenging to easily distinguish between promising and improper designs. With ever increasing line rates and advances in optical interconnects, there is a need for renewed design methodologies that comprehensively capture the requirements and expose trade-offs expeditiously in this complex design space. We introduce a systematic approach, based on Generalized Moore Graphs, allowing one to quickly gauge the ideal level of connectivity required for a given number of end-points and traffic hypothesis, and to collect insight on the role of the switch radix in the topology cost. Based on this approach, we present a methodology for the identification of Pareto-optimal topologies. We apply our method to a practical case with 25,000 nodes and present the results.

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“…35 With the advent of silicon photonics capabilities, several groups have demonstrated significant progress in this active area of research. [36][37][38][39] In Ref 40 it is shown that with optimization of physical layer parameters with current state-of-the-art ring resonator devices, a high radix 128 × 128 silicon photonic single chip switch fabric with tolerable power penalty is feasible. Binkert et al 41 explore power consumption considerations and show that by adopting optical interconnects and switches the energy per bit of a 100,000 port interconnection network can be reduced by a factor of 6 compared to an all electrical implementation.…”

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confidence: 99%

The role of integrated photonics in datacenter networks

Glick

2017

Next-Generation Optical Networks for Data Centers and Short-Reach Links IV

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Datacenter networks are not only larger but with new applications increasing the east-west traffic and the introduction of the spine leaf architecture there is an urgent need for high bandwidth, low cost, energy efficient interconnects. This paper will discuss the role integrated photonics can have in achieving datacenter requirements. We will review the state of the art and then focus on advances in optical switch fabrics and systems.The optical switch is of particular interest from the integration point of view. Current MEMS and LCOS commercial solutions are relatively large with relatively slow reconfiguration times limiting their use in packet based datacenter networks. This has driven the research and development of more highly integrated silicon photonic switch fabrics, including micro ring, Mach-Zehnder and MEMS device designs each with its own energy, bandwidth and scalability, challenges and trade-offs. Micro rings show promise for their small footprint, however they require an energy efficient means to maintain wavelength and thermal control.Latency requirements have been traditionally less stringent in datacenter networks compared to high performance computing applications, however with the increasing numbers of servers communicating within applications and the growing size of the warehouse datacenter, latency is becoming more critical. Although the transparent optical switch fabric itself has a minimal additional latency, we must also take account of any additional latency of the optically switched architecture. Proposed optically switched architectures will be reviewed.

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Silicon Photonic Switch Fabrics in Computer Communications Systems

Cited by 54 publications

References 47 publications

Integrated optical switch matrices for packet data networks

Integrated optical switch matrices for packet data networks

Design Methodology for Optimizing Optical Interconnection Networks in High Performance Systems

The role of integrated photonics in datacenter networks

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