Slotted TDMA and optically switched network for disaggregated datacenters

The relentless traffic growth in datacenter networks is stimulating the adoption of pioneering optical interconnect technologies as well as their integration with novel network and switching architectures. Even more, the need for disaggregation of data storage and processing resources significantly increases the capacity and dimensioning requirements of such networks. In this context, a novel datacenter network architecture that combines space and wavelength switching functionalities is demonstrated experimentally. The architecture leverages slotted TDMA/WDM switching to realize dynamic resource allocation with sub-wavelength granularity, thus realizing a low cost and power consumption, scalable datacenter network. Dynamic reconfiguration of the slotted network vouches for low latency operation of the data plane and hence, it fulfils the requirements of the envisaged disaggregated datacenter infrastructure. The current paper reports the experimental evaluation of the optical subsystems and demonstrates the proof of concept for combined space- and wavelength-switching with optical bursts of 200 μs duration in different network scenarios. The generation and reception of slotted traffic, as well as the control of the optical switching subsystems is performed by means of addressable FPGA boards.