“VERNE”: New packet-optical network for optically transparent and lossless data centers

Further growth of data centers is asking for scalable, low latency and cost efficient interconnection network inside data centers. In this paper, we propose a new packet-optical network called “VERNE”, aiming to satisfy the above requirements by exploiting all-optical and “lossless” operation (by “lossless” we mean operation without packet collisions during their transport from source to destination). The VERNE's network and switching node architecture are detailed for the first time, and the numerical evaluation of the VERNE solution w.r.t. traditional data center architectures is provided. The results suggest that VERNE significantly reduces the number of optical transponders required for data center operation.