Optical network system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11368768-B2
Application number	US-202016823387-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 19, 2020
Priority date	Dec 5, 2019
Publication date	Jun 21, 2022
Grant date	Jun 21, 2022

Abstract

In one embodiment, an optical network system including a plurality of optical switches configured to switch beams of light which are modulated to carry information, a plurality of host computers comprising respective optical network interface controllers (NICs), optical fibers connecting the optical NICs and the optical switches forming an optically-switched communication network, over which optical circuit connections are established between pairs of the optical NICs over ones of the optical fibers via ones of the optical switches, the optically-switched communication network which including the optical NICs and the optical switches.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An optical network system, comprising:
a plurality of optical switches configured to switch beams of light which are modulated to carry information;
a plurality of optically-enabled end-host computers comprising respective end-host optical network interface controllers (NICs), each of the optically-enabled end-host computers comprising a respective one of the end-host optical NICs; and
optical fibers connecting the end-host optical NICs and the optical switches forming an optically-switched communication network, over which optical circuit connections are established between pairs of the end-host optical NICs over ones of the optical fibers via ones of the optical switches, the optically-switched communication network including the end-host optical NICs and the optical switches,
and wherein the optical switches include ports, each of the NICs being connected by a respective one of the optical fibers to a respective one of the ports of the optical switches without even one intervening electrical switch;
and wherein each of the optical NICs comprises:
at least one network interface port comprising at least one optical transmitter and at least one optical receiver configured to be connected to the optically-switched communication network;
a controller agent configured to: negotiate, with a network controller, establishment of the optical circuit connections from a respective one of the NIC devices over the optically-switched communication network; and receive data about establishment of the optical circuit connections from the network controller; and
a device controller configured to: manage queueing of packets awaiting transmission over the optically-switched communication network; and manage sending the packets in optical signals from the at least one optical transmitter over the optically-switched communication network responsively to the data about the establishment of the optical circuit connections.

2. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising at least one network controller configured to manage establishment of the optical circuit connections.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the optical switches include:
a plurality of rotor switches, each rotor switch comprising ports, and being configured to implement a respective set of permutations of connections between the ports; and
a plurality of inter-group optical top of rack (ToR) switches connected to the rotor switches, each inter-group optical ToR switch also being connected to the optical NICs of a respective group of the host computers via respective ones of the optical fibers.

4. The system according to claim 3 , further comprising at least one network controller configured to:
compute a schedule of time slots of ones of the optical circuit connections responsively to switching schedules of ones of the rotor switches and data of queued packets in ones of the optical NICs; and
provide respective scheduling information to respective ones of the optical NICs responsively to the schedule.

5. The system according to claim 3 , wherein:
the optical NICs comprise respective optical transmitters and optical receivers;
each inter-group optical ToR switch is connected to the optical transmitters of the optical NICs of the respective group of the host computers via the respective ones of the optical fibers;
each rotor switch is connected to the optical receivers of respective ones of the optical NICs;
the optical switches include a plurality of intra-group optical ToR switches different from the plurality of inter-group optical ToR switches; and
each intra-group optical ToR switch connects the optical NICs of a respective group of the host computers via respective ones of the optical fibers.

6. The system according to claim 5 , wherein the inter-group optical ToR switches are connected to the rotor switches in a Clos topology.

7. The system according to claim 5 , further comprising inter-group network controllers associated with respective groups of the host computers and respective ones of the inter-group optical ToR switches, each inter-group network controller being configured to:
compute a respective inter-group schedule of time slots of the optical circuit connections from ones of the optical NICs of a respective one of the groups of the host computers via a respective one of the inter-group optical ToR switches responsively to rotor switch switching schedules and data of queued packets in the ones of the optical NICs of the respective group of the host computers;
provide the respective inter-group schedule to the respective inter-group optical ToR switch; and
provide respective inter-group scheduling information to ones of the optical NICs of the respective group of the host computers responsively to the respective inter-group schedule.

8. The system according to claim 7 , further comprising intra-group network controllers associated with the respective groups of the host computers and respective ones of the intra-group optical ToR switches, each intra-group network controller being configured to:
compute a respective intra-group schedule of time slots of the optical circuit connections among the optical NICs of a respective one of the groups of the host computers via a respective one of the intra-group optical ToR switches responsively to data of queued packets in the ones of the optical NICs of the respective group of the host computers;
provide the respective intra-group schedule to the respective intra-group optical ToR switch; and
provide respective intra-group scheduling information to ones of the optical NICs of the respective group of the host computers responsively to the respective intra-group schedule.

9. The system according to claim 5 , wherein each optical NIC includes a device controller configured to:
manage queuing of packets awaiting transmission over the optically-switched communication network; and
manage sending the packets in optical signals over the optically-switched network responsively to data about establishment of the optical circuit connections.

10. The system according to claim 1 , wherein each of the optical NICs comprises two optical transmitters and two optical receivers to respectively transmit and receive optical signals with two different wavelengths, one of the wavelengths being used for direct connections and one of the wavelengths for indirect connections in a load balancing scheme.

11. The system according to claim 10 , further comprising a plurality of optical wavelength routers associated with respective ones of the optical NICs, each optical wavelength router including an input connected to a respective one of the optical fibers and two outputs respectively connected to the two optical receivers of a respective one of the optical NICs, and being configured to separate the optical signals with the two different wavelengths received from the respective optical fiber for separate transmission into to the respective ones of the optical receivers of the respective optical NIC responsively to the different wavelengths of the optical signals.

12. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of allocation agents associated with respective ones of the optical switches, wherein:
a first one of the optical NICs is configured to send a request to at least one of the allocation agents to establish an optical circuit connection to a second one of the optical NICs;
respective ones of the allocation agents are configured negotiate and establish an optical circuit connection from the first optical NIC to the second optical NIC via respective ones of the optical switches;
the first optical NIC is configured

Assignees

• Mellanox Technologies Ltd

Inventors

• Bakopoulos Paraskevas
• Patronas Ioannis (Giannis)
• Zahavi Eitan
• Mentovich Elad

Classifications

• H04Q11/0062 Primary

  Network aspects · CPC title

• H04Q11/0005 Primary

  Switch and router aspects · CPC title

• H04Q11/0066

  Provisions for optical burst or packet networks · CPC title

• H04Q11/00

  Selecting arrangements for multiplex systems (multiplex systems H04J) · CPC title

• H04Q2011/0022

  using fibre gratings · CPC title