Data center architecture utilizing optical switches
AssigneeJuniper Networks, Inc.
InventorAdel Saleh
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Embodiments of the invention describe flexible (i.e., elastic) data center architectures capable of meeting exascale, while maintaining low latency and using reasonable sizes of electronic packet switches, through the use of optical circuit switches such as optical time, wavelength, waveband and space circuit switching technologies. This flexible architecture enables the reconfigurability of the interconnectivity of servers and storage devices within a data center to respond to the number, size, type and duration of the various applications being requested at any given point in time.
Claims36
A network of switches in a data center architecture, the network comprising:
- a plurality of top of rack (ToR) packet switches, each ToR packet switch of the plurality of ToR packet switches configured to communicate with a respective host device of a plurality of host devices;
- and
- a plurality of spine packet switches, each spine packet circuit switch of the plurality of spine packet switches communicatively coupled to each ToR packet switch of the plurality of ToR packet switches, wherein at least one of the ToR packet switches and the spine packet switches comprises cyclic Optical Time Division Multiplex (OTDM) switches, or a plurality of configurable OTDM switches.
A method of communicating data in a data center architecture, the method comprising:
- communicating data packets from a first host device of a plurality of host devices to a first spine packet switch of a plurality of spine packet switches via a first top of rack (ToR) packet switch of a plurality of ToR packet switches;
- and
- communicating the data packets from the first spine packet switch to a second host device of the plurality of host devices via a second ToR packet switch of the plurality of ToR packet switches,
- wherein at least one of the communicating from the first host device to the first spine packet switch and the communicating from the first spine packet switch to the second host device includes optically communicating the data packets and wherein at least one of the ToR packet switches and the spine packet switches comprises cyclic Optical Time Division Multiplex (OTDM) switches, or a plurality of configurable OTDM switches.
A network of switches in a data center architecture, the network comprising:
- a plurality of top of rack (ToR) packet switches, each ToR packet switch of the plurality of ToR packet switches configured to communicate with a respective host device of a plurality of host devices;
- and
- a plurality of spine packet switches, each spine packet circuit switch of the plurality of spine packet switches communicatively coupled to each ToR packet switch of the plurality of ToR packet switches, wherein at least one of the ToR packet switches and the spine packet switches are optical switches configured to establish multiple decoupled partitions of the plurality of host devices.
A method of communicating data in a data center architecture, the method comprising:
- communicating data packets from a first host device of a plurality of host devices to a first spine packet switch of a plurality of spine packet switches via a first top of rack (ToR) packet switch of a plurality of ToR packet switches;
- and
- communicating the data packets from the first spine packet switch to a second host device of the plurality of host devices via a second ToR packet switch of the plurality of ToR packet switches,
- wherein at least one of the communicating from the first host device to the first spine packet switch and the communicating from the first spine packet switch to the second host device includes optically communicating the data packets, and wherein at least one of the ToR packet switches and the spine packet switches are optical switches configured to establish multiple decoupled partitions of the plurality of host devices.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.