Multiserver switch scheduling for high speed optical switches

Abstract

A switch matrix implemented as an optical crossbar using semiconductor optical amplifiers is able to accommodate extreme concentrations of data traffic. Due to the need to reduce optical guard band overhead it is beneficial to switch fixed size bursts of data cells on a time slot basis. The high capacity of the optical matrix supports multiple optical ports per burst card, and the implementation of multiple queue servers per burst card helps make better use of the multiplicity of ports. Problems associated with arbitrating multiple ports and multiple servers per burst card have been resolved by extending the operation of existing iterative, single server scheduling algorithms. The multiserver arbitration time will be in proportion to the number of servers -- corresponding to the channels of DWDM link -- unless a reconciliation stage is used after each iteration when an arbiter per server is used. The reconciliation stage sets the problem of broken data dependencies between server arbitrations in this case. Further, to address the time limitations for computing the scheduling solution, parallel arbiter implementations have been developed and tested against single arbiter designs. Again, the broken dependencies between iterations of an arbitration are addressed through the use of a grant reconciliation stage. The use of multiple queue servers per burst card also resolves some of the data loss problems related to polarized traffic. Simulations of the multiple server and parallel arbiter implementations have demonstrated their efficiency compared to previous implementations. Compounded to this problem is maintaining high throughput of the switch matrix while observing data transit time limits. This involves balancing two contradictory requirements; switch or line card efficiency and data transit times. To improve efficiency it is desirable to transmit only full packets. However, to prevent loss of data due to timeout it will be necessary to transmit some incomplete packets. We investigate three approaches -- thrifty, conservative, and greedy request policies. Using data content and age we demonstrate that unevenly distributed traffic can be handled better with multiserver switching matrices.