The impact of software-defined optical networks on data centre optimization

Delivering scalable packet-switched interconnects that can support the bursty Ethernet traffic, which is common in many data centre applications is a challenging problem that is only getting harder. Implementing the control logic capable of deciding how to forward each packet individually in current packet-switched Ethernet interconnects is not optimized and researchers are proposing hybrid optical/electronic Top of Rack (ToR) architectures to improve the performance towards an optimized operation. Emerging applications (e.g, Big Data) and potential cross-layer performance improvement is another interesting topic that should be properly addressed in future data centres. In this paper a summary of recent developments of optical networking in data centres will be presented. Our software-defined optical network emulation platform is introduced and initial WDM link modelling as a tool for cross layer investigation and optimization are presented. A nonlinear optical signal propagation tool (as a network application) and related results are presented.