Energy efficient flexible-bandwidth OFDM-based data center network

Cloud computing have created the need for more powerful data centers that can face the growing data traffic. These data centers need high bandwidth interconnects that can sustain the high network traffic inside the data center network. Optical interconnects have gained attention recently as a promising energy efficient solution offering high throughput, low latency and reduced energy consumption compared to current networks based on commodity switches. In this paper, we examine the energy consumption of a novel data center network architecture based on cyclic arrayed waveguide grating device and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technology. The proposed architecture is compared with a reference design based on commodity electrical switches and it is shown that the proposed scheme can provide up to 25% lower power consumption.