Garry P. Epps

Integrated Photonics for Low-Power Packet Networking

Communications interconnects and networks will continue to play a large role in contributing to the global carbon footprint, especially in data center and cloud-computing applications exponential growth in capacity. Key to maximizing the benefits of photonics technology is highly functional, lower power, and large-scale photonics integration. In this paper, we report on the latest advances in the photonic integration technologies used for asynchronous optical packet switching using an example photonic integrated switched optical router, the label switched optical router architecture. We report measurements of the power consumed by the photonic circuits in performing their intended function, the electronics required to bias the photonics, processing electronics, and required cooling technology. Data is presented to show that there is room (potentially greater than 10 ×) for improvement in the router packet-forwarding plane. The purpose of this exercise is not to provide a comparison of all-optical versus electronic routers, rather to present a data point on actual measurements of the power contributions for various photonic integration technologies of an all-optical packet router that has been demonstrated and conclude, where the technology can move to reduce power consumption for high-capacity packet routing systems.

Synchronizing optical data and electrical control planes in asynchronous optical packet switches

We experimentally demonstrate the use of optical payload envelope detection in a 40 Gbit/s asynchronous optical packet switch to synchronize the optical data and electrical control planes. Measurements show 100% envelope recovery over an 8.5 dB packet power dynamic range.

Demonstration of Simultaneous Multiplexing/Demultiplexing Operation of an All-Optical 2x2 Packet Switch with Asynchronous Variable-length Optically Labeled 40Gbps Packets

We demonstrate simultaneous multiplexing/demultiplexing operation of a 2x2 all-optical packet switch loaded with a random iMix stream of asynchronous variable-length 40Gbps optically-labelled packets. Layer-2 performance shows ≫ 95% optical label and ≫ 90% packet throughput for both ports.