US 2017/0324480 A1 · PASSIVE OPTICAL-BASED DATA CENTER NETWORKS

Abstract

A data centre network, comprises a first group of optical ports for connection to respective servers of a first group of servers; a second group of optical ports for connection to respective servers of a second group of servers; a first lower passive optical routing element arranged to route optical communication signals between the first group of optical ports and a first lower optical communication path; a second lower passive optical routing element arranged to route optical communication signals between the second group of optical ports and a second lower optical communication path; an upper passive optical routing element arranged to: (i) route optical communication signals between the first lower optical communication path and an upper optical communication path, and (ii) route optical communication signals between the second lower optical communication path and the upper optical communication path.

Claims31

Dependent claims

A data centre network, comprising:

a first group of optical ports for connection to respective servers of a first group of servers;
a second group of optical ports for connection to respective servers of a second group of servers;
a first lower passive optical routing element arranged to route optical communication signals between the first group of optical ports and a first lower optical communication path;
a second lower passive optical routing element arranged to route optical communication signals between the second group of optical ports and a second lower optical communication path;
an upper passive optical routing element arranged to:
(i) route optical communication signals between the first lower optical communication path and an upper optical communication path, and
(ii) route optical communication signals between the second lower optical communication path and the upper optical communication path.

4 more elements

A data centre network system comprising:

a plurality of active optical switching elements, each optical switching element having a plurality of optical ports;
a plurality of sub-networks, a first sub-network of the plurality of sub-networks including a first group of optical ports for communication with a first group of servers and a second group of optical ports for communication with a second group of servers;
a plurality of lower tier optical routing elements arranged to passively route optical signals based on a wavelength of a received optical signal and an input port of the lower tier optical routing element at which the signal is received, the a plurality of lower tier optical routing elements including a first lower tier optical routing element;
and
a plurality of upper tier optical routing elements arranged to passively route optical signals based on a wavelength of a received optical signal and an input port of the upper tier optical routing element at which the signal is received, wherein
the first and second groups of optical ports are arranged to communicate with the first lower tier optical routing element,
the first lower tier optical routing element is arranged to route signals between the first sub-network and each of the plurality of upper tier optical routing elements,
each of the upper tier optical routing elements is arranged to route signals between each of the lower tier optical routing elements and each of the plurality of active optical switching elements.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Passive optical-based data center networks

Life of this patent

Passive optical-based data center networks

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims31