Interconnection system, apparatus, and data transmission method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9712901-B2
Application number	US-201514928661-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 30, 2015
Priority date	Apr 18, 2014
Publication date	Jul 18, 2017
Grant date	Jul 18, 2017

Abstract

An interconnection system, an apparatus, and a data transmission method. In the interconnection system, to-be-transmitted data is converted into a data packet in an optical signal form for transmission, and a control packet corresponding to the data packet is transmitted in an electrical signal form and includes routing information of the data packet. When the control packet passes through a switching node, the switching node directly determines, according to the routing information in the control packet, a neighboring node that serves as a next hop, and opens, in the switching node, an optical path used to transmit the data packet. Because no optical-to-electrical or electrical-to-optical conversion needs to be performed on the control packet and the data packet during an entire transmission procedure, problems of an extra delay and power consumption caused by electrical-optical-electrical conversion can be reduced, thereby improving data transmission efficiency.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An interconnection system, comprising:
a first interconnection endpoint and a second interconnection endpoint;
a first interface controller and a second interface controller; and
one or more switching nodes,
wherein the first interconnection endpoint and a first switching node are connected to the first interface controller,
wherein the second interconnection endpoint and a second switching node are connected to the second interface controller,
wherein the first interconnection endpoint is configured to send data in an electrical signal form to the first interface controller,
wherein the first interface controller is configured to:
determine whether the data in the electrical signal form meets a preset condition;
convert the data in the electrical signal form into a data packet in an optical signal form when the data in the electrical signal form meets the preset condition, and generate a control packet for the data packet, wherein the control packet is in an electrical signal form and comprises routing information of the data packet;
send the control packet to the first switching node;
send the data packet to the first switching node after an offset time,
wherein each of the one or more switching nodes is configured to determine, when receiving the control packet sent by a previous hop node, a next hop node according to the routing information of the data packet;
open an optical path for the data packet from a first optical port connected to the previous hop node to a second optical port connected to the next hop node;
transmit the data packet using the optical path to the second optical when receiving the data packet using the first optical port; and
send the data packet to the next hop node using the second optical port when receiving the data packet using the first optical port,
wherein the previous hop node is a switching node connected to the first optical port or the first interconnection endpoint,
wherein the next hop node is a switching node connected to the second optical port or the second interconnection endpoint, and

wherein the second interface controller is configured to:
convert the data packet into the data in the electrical signal form when receiving the data packet sent by the second switching node; and
send the data in the electrical signal form to the second interconnection endpoint.

2. The interconnection system according to claim 1 , wherein determining that the data in the electrical signal form meets the preset condition comprises determining that a type of the data in the electrical signal form is a preset type.

3. The interconnection system according to claim 1 , wherein determining that the data in the electrical signal form meets the preset condition comprises determining that the data in the electrical signal form is greater than a preset threshold.

4. The interconnection system according to claim 1 , wherein determining that the data in the electrical signal form meets the preset condition comprises determining that the type of the data in an electrical signal form is a preset type and the data in the electrical signal form is greater than a preset threshold.

5. The interconnection system according to claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more switching nodes is further configured to
determine whether the control packet in the electrical signal form is a control packet according to information that is in the control packet in the electrical signal form and used to indicate a packet type when receiving the control packet in the electrical signal form sent by the previous hop node.

6. The interconnection system according to claim 1 , wherein the first interconnection endpoint and the second interconnection endpoint are a processor or a memory.

7. The interconnection system according to claim 6 , wherein the routing information of the data packet comprises a destination address of the data packet, and wherein determining the next hop node according to the routing information of the data packet comprises:
determining, according to the destination address, whether a destination of the data packet is the second interconnection endpoint;
determining that the second interface controller is the next hop node when the destination of the data packet is the second interconnection endpoint; and
determining, according to a routing algorithm, the switching node connected to the second optical port as a candidate next hop node when the destination of the data packet is not the second interconnection endpoint; and
determining that the candidate next hop node is the next hop node when the second optical port connected to the candidate next hop node is not occupied.

8. An interface controller, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory configured to store a computer operation instruction, wherein the processor is coupled to the memory and configured to execute the computer operation instruction stored in the memory to enable the interface controller to:
receive data in an electrical signal form an interconnection endpoint;
determine whether the data in the electrical signal form meets a preset condition;
convert the data into a data packet in an optical signal form when the data in the electrical signal form meets the preset condition;
generate a control packet for the data packet, wherein the control packet is in an electrical signal form and comprises routing information of the data packet;
send the control packet to a switching node connected to the interface controller; and
send the data packet to the switching node after an offset time, such that when receiving the control packet and determining a next hop according to the routing information of the data packet comprised in the control packet, the switching node opens, in the switching node, an optical path that is from an optical port connected to the interface controller to an optical port connected to the next hop and that is used to transmit the data packet, and such that, when receiving the data packet in the optical signal form, the switching node transmits the data packet in the optical signal form using the optical path.

9. The interface controller according to claim 8 , wherein executing, by the processor, the computer operation instruction enables the interface controller to convert the data into the data packet in the optical signal form and generate the control packet when determining at least one of that a type of the data in the electrical signal form is a preset type, that the data in the electrical signal form is greater than a preset threshold, and that a type of the data in the electrical signal form is the preset type and the data in the electrical signal form is greater than the preset threshold.

10. A data transmission method, comprising:
receiving, by an interface controller, data in an electrical signal form sent by an interconnection endpoint connected to the interface controller;
determining whether the data in the electrical signal form meets a preset condition;
converting, by the interface controller, the data into a data packet in an optical signal form when the data in the electrical signal form meets the preset condition;
generating a control packet for the data packet, wherein the control packet is in an electrical signal form and comprises routing information of the data packet;
sending, by the interface controller, the control packet to a switching node connected to the interface controller; and
sending the data packet to the switching node after an offset time, such that the switching node opens an optical path that is from an optical port connected to the interface controller to an optical port connected to a next hop node and that is used to transmit

Assignees

• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Zhang Xuecang
• Hao Qinfen
• Liu yaoda

Classifications

• H04Q2011/0088

  Signalling aspects · CPC title

• H04Q2011/0039

  Electrical control · CPC title

• H04Q11/0066

  Provisions for optical burst or packet networks · CPC title

• H04J14/0267

  Optical signaling or routing · CPC title

• H04Q2011/0058

  Crossbar; Matrix · CPC title