RODA: A reconfigurable optical data center network architecture

In this paper, we introduce a novel all-optical Data center networking (DCN) fabric, by leveraging the reconfigurability of the optical transceivers and switches, while dynamically changing the end-to-end optical routes to match the varying traffic demands. The dynamic flow scheduling along with their wavelength assignment turns out to be a NP-hard problem. We propose centralized heuristics for the inter-rack flow scheduling, by exploiting the optical wavelength division multiplexing, while minimizing the number of intermediate optical hops. Through extensive simulations, we show that the proposed architecture and flow scheduling reduces the network congestion by a factor of 15-18, compared to state-of-the-art part-time optical DCNs. For most of the traffic patterns, the proposed scheme can deliver >90% of the inter-rack traffic through direct optical communication.