Intra-node high-performance computing network architecture with nanosecond-scale photonic switches
We propose a single-stage network architecture for intra-node connectivity that makes use of nanosecond-scale photonic switches. Although buffering at the switch points is of vital importance for complex multi-stage networks, this is not the case for smaller-scale single-stage networks where the end nodes are located only one hop apart. By limiting the buffering to the end points, the proposed architecture manages to minimize the required electro-optic and opto-electronic conversions, leading in this way to both low end-to-end latency and better energy efficiency. Combining these advantages with nanosecond-scale switching times can allow for high-throughput operation even for frequent switch reconfigurations. The performance of the proposed architecture is evaluated via discrete-event simulations for a wide range of synthetic-traffic cases. The simulation results show that high-throughput operation of ≥90% can be achieved even for small message sizes, i.e., 32 KB for all-to-all communication and 2 KB for uniform random traffic, at a data rate of 400 Gb/s and a switch reconfiguration time of ≤72 ns. Moreover, if 100-ns reconfiguration times are achievable as opposed to 150-ns, then for the all-to-all traffic case a 16% and 28% reduction in completion time can be achieved for message sizes of 8 KB and 1 KB, respectively. In a forthcoming era of optically interfaced processors and accelerators, nanosecond-scale photonic switches appear as a highly promising solution for keeping up with the intra-node bandwidth scaling due to their high-bandwidth, low-latency and fast-switching capabilities.
- Research Organization:
- IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY (United States); IBM Research, Yorktown Heights, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AR0000846; AR0000844
- OSTI ID:
- 1673160
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1657827; OSTI ID: 1668899
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-IBM-0844-020
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Optical Communications and Networking, Vol. 12, Issue 12; ISSN 1943-0620
- Publisher:
- IEEE / Optical Society of America (OSA)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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