Circuit Design for Scalable and Fast Optical Circuit Switching

Erik Anderson

EECS Department
University of California, Berkeley
Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2024-213
December 14, 2024

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2024/EECS-2024-213.pdf

Data centers and large-scale distributed computers have become limited by the latency, throughput, and inflexibility of traditional electronic packet switches (EPSs). As evidenced by the recent introduction of optical circuit switches (OCSs) into Google’s datacenters and TPU clusters, OCSs provide a way to circumvent many of the limitations of EPS networks. Silicon-Photonic (SiPh) MEMS-based OCSs have been shown to offer a scalable and low-latency approach compared to other integrated and non-integrated OCSs. Yet to be realized, however, is the electrical control and digital interface required for integrating high-radix MEMS SiPh chips into an application environment. This work demonstrates two novel approaches to controlling SiPh MEMS OCSs in both a scalable and efficient manner.

Advisor: Vladimir Stojanovic

\"Edit"; ?>

BibTeX citation:

@phdthesis{Anderson:EECS-2024-213,
    Author = {Anderson, Erik},
    Title = {Circuit Design for Scalable and Fast Optical Circuit Switching},
    School = {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year = {2024},
    Month = {Dec},
    URL = {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2024/EECS-2024-213.html},
    Number = {UCB/EECS-2024-213},
    Abstract = {Data centers and large-scale distributed computers have become limited by the latency, throughput, and inflexibility of traditional electronic packet switches (EPSs). As evidenced by the recent introduction of optical circuit switches (OCSs) into Google’s datacenters and TPU clusters, OCSs provide a way to circumvent many of the limitations of EPS networks. Silicon-Photonic (SiPh) MEMS-based OCSs have been shown to offer a scalable and low-latency approach compared to other integrated and non-integrated OCSs. Yet to be realized, however, is the electrical control and digital interface required for integrating high-radix MEMS SiPh chips into an application environment. This work demonstrates two novel approaches to controlling SiPh MEMS OCSs in both a scalable and efficient manner.}
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Thesis
%A Anderson, Erik
%T Circuit Design for Scalable and Fast Optical Circuit Switching
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 2024
%8 December 14
%@ UCB/EECS-2024-213
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2024/EECS-2024-213.html
%F Anderson:EECS-2024-213