Combining circuit and packet switching using a large port-count optical cross-connect for data center networks

The exponential increase in the data center network traffic has posed new challenges for achieving high throughput, low latency and energy consumption. To address these challenges, this paper presents a novel scheme that combines optical circuit and packet switching technologies together in a single optical cross-connect for data center networks. By utilizing fast tunable linecards and parallel array waveguide grating routers, the optical cross-connect can offer low latency, large scalability and high throughput in datacenter networks. A scheduling technique is designed to simultaneously accommodate circuit switching and packet switching in the optical cross-connect. The physical performance of this optical cross-connect in circuit and packet switching modes is investigated by experiments. In addition, the network performance of the optical cross-connect is evaluated through simulations under a mixed circuit/packet-switched traffic pattern. Results show that the network performance of the optical cross-connect does not degrade significantly with an increase in the number of racks, but it is affected by the circuit-switched traffic proportion.