Enabling Scalable and Sustainable Data Center Networks
- Reference number
- IB13-0011
- Start and end dates
- 140901-210831
- Amount granted
- 5 992 111 SEK
- Administrative organization
- Chalmers University of Technology
- Research area
- Information, Communication and Systems Technology
Summary
The main objective of this proposal is to explore revolutionary, highly scalable and environmentally sustainable approaches for data center networks, providing interconnections among different servers within a data center as well as interfaces to Internet. We aim to develop and evaluate network architectures with the highest potential of enabling ultra-high-capacity and energy-efficient next generation data centers, which will be realized for the first time by integrating two optical networking technologies: broadcast-and-select approach and elastic spectrum allocation. Three specific tasks are: 1) Optical Interconnects at top of rack, based on broadcast-and-select structure to offer multicast capability; 2) Elastic optical core switches, supporting dynamic spectrum allocation for high flexibility; 3) Overall optical network architecture, integrating the schemes developed in (1) and (2) to achieve an optimized approach efficiently handling ever-increasing traffic in data center network. Sweden is an excellent choice for data center location while for a long time photonics has been a Swedish strategic industry. The outcome of the project will be available for Swedish photonics and data center industries, and can potentially enhance their long-term competitiveness. Moreover, we will create an attractive environment for bright female students and researchers to work in the project, further contributing to improvement of gender equality in this research area.
Popular science description
In the "information age", a vast amount of digital data are stored, processed, computed and instantly made available upon request. Users of these data range from large organizations (e.g. big enterprises, government, universities, etc.) to individual customers. It has led to a significant growth in the number of data centers – buildings that house a collection of servers, network equipment, power supplies, cooling equipment, etc. – which provide information at our fingertips, supplying business, government, academia and consumers around the world. However, data center network, which handles the traffic inside a data center as well as the one to the external network, suffers from the scalability and energy problems currently. It is expected that the required bandwidth will increase 20 times every 4 years, but the total power consumption that can be afforded is allowed to increase at a much slower rate (i.e. 2 times every 4 years) due to thermal dissipation constraints. In this regard an ultra-high-capacity and energy-efficient data center networking solution is of vital importance. It has been widely recognized that photonics is by far the least costly and least energy-consuming transport technology to deliver ultra-high bandwidth. Therefore, the emphasis should be placed on the architectures that leverage optical transport to the greatest extent possible. Looking at current data center networks and the anticipated continued increase in capacity and energy consumption, it is becoming extremely important to optimize various facets of optical networking, from its static characteristics, such as fixed channel spacing and unicast, to the more dynamic ones, such as the elastic spectrum allocation and multicast capability. This project addresses these key issues, aiming to explore revolutionary, highly scalable and environmentally sustainable approaches for next generation data center networks, which will be realized for the first time in the world wide by integrating two advanced optical networking technologies: broadcast-and-select approach and elastic channel spacing. The outcome of the project will be available for Swedish photonics industry as well as data center providers and operators, and can potentially enhance their long-term competitiveness. Moreover, we will create an attractive environment for bright female students and researchers to work in the project, further contributing to improvement of gender equality in this research area.