A power-efficient all-optical on-chip interconnect using wavelength-based oblivious routing

Abstract

We present an all-optical approach to constructing data networks on chip that combines the following key features: (1) Wavelength-based routing, where the route followed by a packet depends solely on the wavelength of its carrier signal, and not on information either contained in the packet or traveling along with it. (2) Oblivious routing, by which the wavelength (and thus the route) employed to connect a source-destination pair is invariant for that pair, and does not depend on ongoing transmissions by other nodes, thereby simplifying design and operation. And (3) passive optical wavelength routers, whose routing pattern is set at design time, which allows for area and power optimizations not generally available to solutions that use dynamic routing. Compared to prior proposals, our evaluation shows that our solution is significantly more power efficient at a similar level of performance.