Ultrafast optical circuit switching for data centers using integrated soliton microcombs

Abstract

Networks inside current data centers comprise a hierarchy of power-hungry electronic packet switches interconnected via optical fibers and transceivers. As the scaling of such electrically-switched networks approaches a plateau, a power-efficient solution is to implement a flat network with optical circuit switching (OCS), without electronic switches and a reduced number of transceivers due to direct links among servers. One of the promising ways of implementing OCS is by using tunable lasers and arrayed waveguide grating routers. Such an OCS-network can offer high bandwidth and low network latency, and the possibility of photonic integration results in an energy-efficient, compact, and scalable photonic data center network. To support dynamic data center workloads efficiently, it is critical to switch between wavelengths in sub nanoseconds (ns). Here we demonstrate ultrafast photonic circuit switching based on a microcomb. Using a photonic integrated Si3N4 microcomb in conjunction with semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs), sub ns (< 500 ps) switching of more than 20 carriers is achieved. Moreover, the 25-Gbps non-return to zero (NRZ) and 50-Gbps four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) burst mode transmission systems are shown. Further, on-chip Indium phosphide (InP) based SOAs and arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) are used to show sub-ns switching along with 25-Gbps NRZ burst mode transmission providing a path toward a more scalable and energy-efficient wavelength-switched network for future data centers.

arXiv comment11 pages, 6 figures

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• Dissipative Kerr soliton microcombs for FEC-free optical communications over 100 channels
• Predicting nonlinear dynamics of optical solitons in optical fiber via the SCPINN
• Synthetically Non-Hermitian Nonlinear Wave-like Behavior in a Topological Mechanical Metamaterial
• Programmable access to microresonator solitons with modulational sideband heating
• MixNet: A Runtime Reconfigurable Optical-Electrical Fabric for Distributed Mixture-of-Experts Training
• Ladder of Eckhaus instabilities and parametric conversion in chi(2) microresonators
• Soliton metacrystals: topology and chirality
• Light coupling to photonic integrated circuits using optimized lensed fibers