title: Novel flat datacenter network architecture based on scalable and flow-controlled optical switch system.
abstract: We propose and demonstrate an optical flat datacenter network based on scalable optical switch system with optical flow control. Modular structure with distributed control results in port-count independent optical switch reconfiguration time. RF tone in-band labeling technique allowing parallel processing of the label bits ensures the low latency operation regardless of the switch port-count. Hardware flow control is conducted at optical level by re-using the label wavelength without occupying extra bandwidth, space, and network resources which further improves the performance of latency within a simple structure. Dynamic switching including multicasting operation is validated for a 4 x 4 system. Error free operation of 40 Gb/s data packets has been achieved with only 1 dB penalty. The system could handle an input load up to 0.5 providing a packet loss lower that 10(-5) and an average latency less that 500 ns when a buffer size of 16 packets is employed. Investigation on scalability also indicates that the proposed system could potentially scale up to large port count with limited power penalty.
authors.forename: Wang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Di Lucente
authors.forename: Harm
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dorren
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Calabretta