Experimental research in high capacity communications for data centers

2013年，数据中心每年处理的数据量超过了ZB(或1021字节，或万亿GB)的门槛，同时社交网络、云计算和大数据应用方面的巨大进步仍在继续。每个思科全球云指数的复合年增长率为32%，预计到2020年末数据中心流量将达到14.1 ZB。保留在数据中心内的流量占总数据中心流量的75%以上。这些趋势正在推动未来数据中心内对千兆位/秒(PB/S)速率的研究。铅/S目标将需要多种多路复用策略和高级调制，所有这些都在数据中心的严格成本限制内。实现铅/S传输速率需要一个沿着所有多路复用途径同时推进边界的系统：先进的调制格式、频谱高效的操作、多个波长频段的覆盖以及模式和/或多核的空间多路复用。为了保持低成本，解决方案必须与单片集成光学和电子组件的趋势兼容。在实现光组件的各种技术中，硅光子学因其具有占地面积小、低成本、低功耗和可扩展性的潜力而特别吸引人。此外，软件定义网络的出现和对柔性网格体系结构的兴趣对可行的铅/S系统策略提出了限制。拟议的五年研究项目将重点探索如何利用波分复用和QAM调制来实现短距离(&lt；5公里)点对点或网状网络中的单根光纤上的铅/S。该项目将在几个方向上推动最先进的技术

In 2013, the amount of data processed yearly in data centers surpassed the Zettabyte (or 1021 bytes, or the trillion Gigabyte) threshold, while the massive progress in social networking, cloud computing and big data applications continues. With a compound annual growth rate of 32% per the CISCO global cloud index, data center traffic is expected to reach 14.1 Zettabytes by the end of 2020 . Traffic that remains within data centers accounts for more than 75% of the overall data center traffic. These trends are pushing research for Petabit per second (Pb/s) rates within future data centers. The Pb/s target will require multiple multiplexing strategies and ad-vanced modulation, all within the tight cost constraints of the data center.Achieving Pb/s transmission rates requires a system that pushes boundaries simultaneously along all multiplexing avenues: advanced modulation formats, spectrally efficient operation, coverage of multiple wavelength bands, and spatial multiplexing in modes and/or multiple cores. To keep costs low, solutions must be compatible with trends to monolithically integrated optical and electrical components. Among the various technologies to implement optical com-ponents, silicon photonics is particularly attractive as it holds the potential for small footprint, low cost, low power consumption and scalability . In addition, the advent of software defined networks and interest in flex-grid architectures place constraints on viable Pb/s system strate-gies. The proposed five-year research project will focus on exploring how results in optical multiplexing can be harnessed with WDM and QAM modulation to achieve Pb/s on a single fiber in a point-to-point or mesh network at short distances (< 5 km). The project will push the state-of-the art in several directions