Deterministic latency networks: the enabler of edge data center synchronous operation [Invited]

High bandwidth demands combined with low latency applications shifted data processing from the centralized cloud to the edge data center (DC). We propose to leverage the deterministic data delivery in optical deterministic dynamic networks (DDNs) to operate the edge DC in a synchronous manner. We jointly optimize compute and network resources allocation to deliver data just in time to be processed at the compute resources. Numerical results show that our DDN-based approach can (1) accelerate the application total execution time by up to 70% from baseline approaches; (2) reduce performance variance for competing applications, therefore satisfying the service level objective for all; and (3) increase the efficiency of the edge DC in a heterogeneous application environment.