Optical network system
AssigneeMellanox Technologies, Ltd.
InventorsParaskevas Bakopoulos, Ioannis (Giannis) Patronas, Eitan Zahavi, Elad Mentovich
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In one embodiment, an optical network system including a plurality of optical switches configured to switch beams of light which are modulated to carry information, a plurality of host computers comprising respective optical network interface controllers (NICs), optical fibers connecting the optical NICs and the optical switches forming an optically-switched communication network, over which optical circuit connections are established between pairs of the optical NICs over ones of the optical fibers via ones of the optical switches, the optically-switched communication network which including the optical NICs and the optical switches.
Claims23
An optical network system, comprising:
- a plurality of optical switches configured to switch beams of light which are modulated to carry information;
- a plurality of optically-enabled end-host computers comprising respective end-host optical network interface controllers (NICs), each of the optically-enabled end-host computers comprising a respective one of the end-host optical NICs;
- and
- optical fibers connecting the end-host optical NICs and the optical switches forming an optically-switched communication network, over which optical circuit connections are established between pairs of the end-host optical NICs over ones of the optical fibers via ones of the optical switches, the optically-switched communication network including the end-host optical NICs and the optical switches,
- and wherein the optical switches include ports, each of the NICs being connected by a respective one of the optical fibers to a respective one of the ports of the optical switches without even one intervening electrical switch;
- and wherein each of the optical NICs comprises:
- at least one network interface port comprising at least one optical transmitter and at least one optical receiver configured to be connected to the optically-switched communication network;
- a controller agent configured to:
- negotiate, with a network controller, establishment of the optical circuit connections from a respective one of the NIC devices over the optically-switched communication network;
- and receive data about establishment of the optical circuit connections from the network controller;
- and
- a device controller configured to:
- manage queueing of packets awaiting transmission over the optically-switched communication network;
- and manage sending the packets in optical signals from the at least one optical transmitter over the optically-switched communication network responsively to the data about the establishment of the optical circuit connections.
An end-host optical network interface controller (NIC) device, comprising:
- an interface with an end-host computer and configured to receive packets from the end-host computer;
- at least one network interface port comprising at least one optical transmitter and at least one optical receiver configured to be connected to an optically-switched communication network, over which optical circuit connections from the NIC device are established, optically-switched communication network including optical switches and other optical NICs;
- a device controller configured to:
- manage queueing of the packets awaiting transmission over the optically-switched communication network;
- and
- manage sending the packets in optical signals from the at least one optical transmitter over the optically-switched communication network responsively to data about establishment of the optical circuit connections;
- and
- a controller agent configured to:
- negotiate, with at least one network controller, the establishment of the optical circuit connections from the NIC device over the optically-switched communication network;
- and receive the data about the establishment of the optical circuit connections from the at least one network controller;
- and
- wherein the optical switches include ports, the optical NICs being connected by optical fibers to the ports of the optical switches without intervening electrical switches.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.