A novel SDN enabled hybrid optical packet/circuit switched data centre network: the LIGHTNESS approach

Abstract

Current over-provisioned and multi-tier data centre networks (DCN) deploy rigid control and management platforms, which are not able to accommodate the ever-growing workload driven by the increasing demand of high-performance data centre (DC) and cloud applications. In response to this, the EC FP7 project LIGHTNESS (Low Latency and High Throughput Dynamic Network Infrastructures for High Performance Datacentre Interconnects) is proposing a new flattened optical DCN architecture capable of providing dynamic, programmable, and highly available DCN connectivity services while meeting the requirements of new and emerging DC and cloud applications. LIGHTNESS DCN comprises all-optical switching technologies (Optical Packet Switching (OPS) and Optical Circuit Switching (OCS)) and hybrid Top-of-the-Rack (ToR) switches, controlled and operated by a Software Defined Networking (SDN) based control plane for enhanced programmability of heterogeneous network functions and protocols. Harnessing the power of optics enables DCs to effectively cope with the high-performance applications' demands. The programmability and flexibility provided by the SDN based control plane allow to fully exploit the benefits of the LIGHTNESS multi-technology optical DCN, while provisioning on-demand, dynamic, flexible and highly resilient network services inside DCs.