Modeling and performance analysis of OPS data center network with flow management using Express Path

Modeling and performance analysis of optical packet switching (OPS) data center networks (DCN) with flow management is presented. Hybrid optoelectronic packet routers (HOPR) are introduced in the data center network, which combines optical switching fabric and electronic buffers with 100 Gbit/s (25 Gbit/s × 4 wavelengths) links. A novel “Express Path”, an instant wavelength path on demand, is proposed to enable the flows bypassing label processors at intermediate nodes, whereas ordinary packets are switched with deflection routing algorithm for contention resolution. This architecture thus guarantees end-to-end Quality-of-Service of traffic on express path as well as reduces the latency and the power consumption. First, the combined architecture of flows on the express paths and ordinary packet switching is modeled. Next, through the numerical simulations of serve-to-server traffic in 4-dimensional (4-D) (=up to 4096-node) torus topology, the performance in terms of the throughput, packet dropping probability and the end-to-end delay will be discussed, in comparison with ordinary-packet-only OPS architecture.