Efficiently interconnecting a plurality of computing nodes to form a circuit-switched network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11539453-B2
Application number	US-202117173052-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 10, 2021
Priority date	Nov 3, 2020
Publication date	Dec 27, 2022
Grant date	Dec 27, 2022

Abstract

A system for interconnecting a plurality of computing nodes includes a plurality of optical circuit switches and a plurality of electrical circuit switches. A first network stage comprises a first plurality of circuit switches selected from among the plurality of optical circuit switches and the plurality of electrical circuit switches. Each computing node among the plurality of computing nodes is optically coupled to at least one of the first plurality of circuit switches. A second network stage comprises a second plurality of circuit switches selected from among the plurality of optical circuit switches and the plurality of electrical circuit switches. Each circuit switch among the first plurality of circuit switches is optically coupled to each circuit switch among the second plurality of optical circuit switches.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for interconnecting a plurality of computing nodes, comprising:
a plurality of optical circuit switches;
a plurality of electrical circuit switches;
a first network stage comprising a first plurality of circuit switches selected from among the plurality of optical circuit switches and the plurality of electrical circuit switches, wherein each computing node among the plurality of computing nodes is optically coupled to at least one of the first plurality of circuit switches; and
a second network stage comprising a second plurality of circuit switches selected from among the plurality of optical circuit switches and the plurality of electrical circuit switches, wherein each circuit switch among the first plurality of circuit switches is optically coupled to each circuit switch among the second plurality of circuit switches.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the first plurality of circuit switches comprises the plurality of optical circuit switches; and
the second plurality of circuit switches comprises the plurality of electrical circuit switches.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the first plurality of circuit switches comprises the plurality of electrical circuit switches; and
the second plurality of circuit switches comprises the plurality of optical circuit switches.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein each optical circuit switch among the plurality of optical circuit switches is configured to switch an input optical signal from an input port to an output port based on an optical characteristic of the input optical signal.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the plurality of computing nodes comprise a plurality of disaggregated computing nodes; and
the plurality of disaggregated computing nodes comprise pools of processing nodes and memory nodes.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the plurality of computing nodes are located in a single rack within a datacenter; and
the plurality of computing nodes are interconnected to form an intra-rack network.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of optical transceivers, wherein each circuit switch among the first plurality of circuit switches is coupled to at least one optical transceiver.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein optical communications between the plurality of computing nodes and the first plurality of circuit switches and between the first plurality of circuit switches and the second plurality of circuit switches occur via free-space optical communications.

9. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a first plurality of optical cables that couple the plurality of computing nodes to the first plurality of circuit switches; and
a second plurality of optical cables that couple the first plurality of circuit switches to the second plurality of circuit switches.

10. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a scheduler that configures the first plurality of circuit switches and the second plurality of circuit switches to enable communication paths among the plurality of computing nodes.

11. A system for interconnecting a plurality of computing nodes, comprising:
a plurality of node optical transceivers that are electrically coupled to at least some of the plurality of computing nodes; and
a switch that is optically coupled to the plurality of node optical transceivers, the switch comprising:
a plurality of optical circuit switches;
a plurality of electrical circuit switches;
a first network stage comprising a first plurality of circuit switches selected from among the plurality of optical circuit switches and the plurality of electrical circuit switches, wherein each computing node among the plurality of computing nodes is optically coupled to at least one of the first plurality of circuit switches; and
a second network stage comprising a second plurality of circuit switches selected from among the plurality of optical circuit switches and the plurality of electrical circuit switches, wherein each circuit switch among the first plurality of circuit switches is optically coupled to each circuit switch among the second plurality of circuit switches.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein:
the first plurality of circuit switches comprises the plurality of optical circuit switches; and
the second plurality of circuit switches comprises the plurality of electrical circuit switches.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein:
the first plurality of circuit switches comprises the plurality of electrical circuit switches; and
the second plurality of circuit switches comprises the plurality of optical circuit switches.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein:
the plurality of computing nodes comprise a plurality of disaggregated computing nodes; and
the plurality of disaggregated computing nodes comprise pools of processing nodes and memory nodes.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein:
the switch further comprises a plurality of switch optical transceivers; and
each circuit switch among the first plurality of circuit switches is coupled to at least one switch optical transceiver.

16. A system for interconnecting a plurality of computing nodes to form a circuit-switched network, comprising:
a first plurality of optical circuit switches that form a first stage of the circuit-switched network, wherein each computing node among the plurality of computing nodes is optically coupled to an optical circuit switch among the first plurality of optical circuit switches;
a second plurality of optical circuit switches that form a second stage of the circuit-switched network, wherein each optical circuit switch among the second plurality of optical circuit switches is optically coupled to each optical circuit switch among the first plurality of optical circuit switches; and
a plurality of wavelength converters that couple the first plurality of optical circuit switches to the second plurality of optical circuit switches, each wavelength converter being configured to convert an input optical signal to an output optical signal having a desired wavelength.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein each wavelength converter comprises:
a photodetector that is configured to convert the input optical signal to an electrical signal;
a light source that is tunable to a plurality of different wavelengths; and
an optical modulator that is configured to modulate the electrical signal onto an output signal generated by the light source to produce the output optical signal.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein at least some of the plurality of wavelength converters are configured to perform wavelength conversion without performing an optical-electrical-optical conversion.

19. The system of claim 16 , wherein:
the plurality of computing nodes comprise a plurality of disaggregated computing nodes located in a rack within a datacenter; and
the plurality of disaggregated computing nodes comprise pools of processing nodes and memory nodes.

20. The system of claim 16 , wherein each optical circuit switch among the first plurality of optical circuit switches and the second plurality of optical circuit switches:
comprises a plurality of input ports and a plurality of output ports; and
is configured to switch an incoming optical signal from an input port to an output port based on a wavelength of the incoming optical signal.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Ballani Hitesh
• Belady Christian L
• Hsu Lisa Ru-Feng
• Saunders Winston Allen
• Costa Paolo
• Carmean Douglas M
• Shi Kai
• Boecker Charles

Classifications

• H04J14/0267 Primary

  Optical signaling or routing · CPC title

• H04J14/0241

  Wavelength allocation for communications one-to-one, e.g. unicasting wavelengths · CPC title

• H04J14/0223

  Conversion to or from optical TDM · CPC title

• H04Q2011/0011

  using wavelength conversion · CPC title

• H04Q11/0005

  Switch and router aspects · CPC title