Benjamin A. Small

A fully implemented 12 /spl times/ 12 data vortex optical packet switching interconnection network

A fully functional optical packet switching (OPS) interconnection network based on the data vortex architecture is presented. The photonic switching fabric uniquely capitalizes on the enormous bandwidth advantage of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) wavelength parallelism while delivering minimal packet transit latency. Utilizing semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based switching nodes and conventional fiber-optic technology, the 12-port system exhibits a capacity of nearly 1 Tb/s. Optical packets containing an eight-wavelength WDM payload with 10 Gb/s per wavelength are routed successfully to all 12 ports while maintaining a bit error rate (BER) of 10/sup -12/ or better. Median port-to-port latencies of 110 ns are achieved with a distributed deflection routing network that resolves packet contention on-the-fly without the use of optical buffers and maintains the entire payload path in the optical domain.

The Data Vortex Optical Packet Switched Interconnection Network

A complete review of the data vortex optical packet switched (OPS) interconnection network architecture is presented. The distributed multistage network topology is based on a banyan structure and incorporates a deflection routing scheme ideally suited for implementation with optical components. An implemented 12-port system prototype employs broadband semiconductor optical amplifier switching nodes and is capable of successfully routing multichannel wavelength-division multiplexing packets while maintaining practically error-free signal integrity (BER < 10-12) with median latencies of 110 ns. Packet contentions are resolved without the use of optical buffers via a distributed deflection routing control scheme. The entire payload path in the optical domain exhibits a capacity of nearly 1 Tb/s. Further experimental measurements investigate the OPS interconnection networks flexibility and robustness in terms of optical power dynamic range and network timing. Subsequent experimental investigations support the physical layer scalability of the implemented architecture and serve to substantiate the merits of the data vortex OPS network architectural paradigm. Finally, modified design considerations that aim to increase the network throughput and device-level performance are presented.

Multiple-wavelength integrated photonic networks based on microring resonator devices

Feature Issue on Nanoscale Integrated Photonics for Optical Networks Microring resonator devices implemented on silicon and silicon-on-insulator substrates have a unique potential to be used in high-bandwidth multiple-wavelength integrated photonic networks. A scheme for the wavelength allocation is proposed, and its feasibility is verified experimentally. The important system-level trade-offs that result from the proposed scheme, including those among bandwidth, device footprint, and electrical power consumption, are discussed as well.

Transmission of high-data-rate optical signals through a micrometer-scale silicon ring resonator

The effects of a micrometer-scale silicon ring resonator with a FWHM of 0.078 nm (9.6 GHz) on a nonreturn to zero amplitude-modulated optical signal with a modulation rate of 10 Gbps are experimentally investigated. By transmitting the optical signal through the device, significant spectral distortion and side band attenuation is introduced, as characterized by amplitude Bode plots, and a power penalty of 0.8 dB is observed. Carrier wavelengths within the transmission resonance, but detuned from the center wavelength, are investigated as well. Numerical simulations further support the experimental results.

Physical Layer scalability of WDM optical packet interconnection networks

The physical layer scalability of a packet-switched optical interconnection network utilizing semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) switch elements is investigated experimentally and with numerical modeling. Optical packets containing payloads of multiple wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) channels are propagated through cascaded SOA-based switching nodes in a recirculating test-bed environment. Experiments show that bit-error rates (BERs) below 10/sup -9/ can be maintained through 58 switching nodes for the entire eight-channel 10-Gb/s-per-channel payload distributed over 24.2 nm of the C-band. When the packet payload consists of a single 10-Gb/s channel, 98 node hops can be traversed before a BER of 10/sup -9/ is exceeded. In conjunction with the experiments, a novel phenomenological modeling technique is developed in order to forecast the scalability of SOA-based WDM packet interconnection networks. This technique is shown to yield results that correlate well with the experimental data. These investigations are presented as predictors of the physical limitations of large-scale WDM packet-switched networks.

The Data Vortex, an All Optical Path Multicomputer Interconnection Network

All optical path interconnection networks employing dense wavelength division multiplexing can provide vast improvements in supercomputer performance. However, the lack of efficient optical buffering requires investigation of new topologies and routing techniques. This paper introduces and evaluates the data vortex optical switching architecture which uses cylindrical routing paths as a packet buffering alternative. In addition, the impact of the number of angles on the overall network performance is studied through simulation. Using optimal topology configurations, the data vortex is compared to two existing switching architectures-butterfly and omega networks. The three networks are compared in terms of throughput, accepted traffic ratio, and average packet latency. The data vortex is shown to exhibit comparable latency and a higher acceptance rate (2times at 50 percent load) than the butterfly and omega topologies

Characterization of a 4

A 4times4 Gb/s microring modulator cascade, which can directly convert data from a parallel electrical bus to a multiple-wavelength optical signal in a single silicon-on-insulator waveguide, is demonstrated and characterized. The integrity of the modulated optical signal is verified using Q-factor extrapolations. In addition, the frequency characteristics and crosstalk, in terms of total harmonic distortion, are quantified. A transparent translator from electronics to optics such as this is crucial for the development of large-scale high-bandwidth interconnects based on photonic integrated circuits

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A photonic packet switching node is introduced, and its routing latency is shown to be 15.3 ns. The power penalty of the node at a bit-error rate (BER) of 10/sup -9/ is confirmed to be approximately 0.2 dB across 33 nm of the C-band for 10-Gb/s payload wavelengths. Moreover, multiple-wavelength packets containing 16 payload wavelengths can be switched while maintaining BERs of 10/sup -12/ or better.

4 Gb/s Parallel Electronic Bus to WDM Optical Link Silicon Photonic Translator

We report on the implementation of a complete 12-port Data Vortex optical packet switching fabric containing 36 fully-interconnected nodes. Correct routing behavior is verified for 14-channel WDM packets, and latencies below 60 ns are achieved.

Ultra-low latency optical packet switching node

We introduce a novel optical packet switching buffer architecture that is composed of multiple building-block modules, allowing for a large degree of scalability. The buffer supports independent and simultaneous read and write processes without packet rejection or misordering and can be considered a fully functional packet buffer. It can easily be programmed to support two prioritization schemes: first-in first-out (FIFO) and last-in first-out (LIFO). Because the system leverages semiconductor optical amplifiers as switching elements, wideband packets can be routed transparently. The operation of the system is discussed with illustrative packet sequences, which are then verified on an actual implementation composed of conventional fiber-optic componentry