News & Announcements

$150,000 Grant Investigated by Dr. ZhangSeptember 17, 2009

Title: "Collaborative Research: Ultra Low Latency Optical Packet Switched Interconnects with Novel Switching Paradigm"
PI: Zhenghao Zhang
Amount: $150,000
This is a 3 year grant from the NSF.

Abstract:

With the advances of modern computer architectures, interconnects are playing an ever increasingly important role for processor interconnection. Advanced optical switching technologies, such as optical packet switching and wavelength-division-multiplexing, provide a platform to exploit the huge capacity of optical fiber to meet the increasing needs. This research proposes a new switching paradigm - optical cut-through with electronic packet buffering, and systematically investigates the fundamental and challenging issues in the optical interconnect under this switching scheme, with the objective of designing cost-effective ultra-low latency and pragmatic interconnects for future high-performance computing and communications systems. A unique feature of the proposed interconnect is that those packets that do not cause contentions can pass the interconnect directly in optical form and experience minimum delay, while only those that cause contentions are buffered. This research proposes to combine optical packet switching with electronic buffering, such that the interconnect will enjoy both fast switching and large buffering capacity. This research will (1) design the switching fabric and packet scheduling algorithms, (2) design practical Forward Error Control (FEC) for the interconnect, and (3) conduct extensive performance evaluations by means of simulation and emulation tools and analytical models.