Signal Degradation for Optical Interconnects in Data Center Networks

Emerging web based and cloud computing applications have created a need for powerful data center networks (DCN). Optical interconnects are replacing their electrical counterparts due to their benefits. Optical interconnects for DCNs are made up of various optical components like wavelength selective switch (WSS), tunable wavelength converter (TWC), arrayed waveguide grating (AWG), semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), micro electromechanical switch (MEMS) and wavelength division multiplexer/demultiplexer. These optical components introduce various type of signal degradation. Signal degradation directly affects the bit error rate (BER) of the interconnects. This paper identifies and classifies these signal degradations types and discusses methods to reduce them.