Integrating microsecond circuit switching into the data center

Abstract

Recent proposals have employed optical circuit switching (OCS) to reduce the cost of data center networks. However, the relatively slow switching times (10--100 ms) assumed by these approaches, and the accompanying latencies of their control planes, has limited its use to only the largest data center networks with highly aggregated and constrained workloads. As faster switch technologies become available, designing a control plane capable of supporting them becomes a key challenge.