On-Demand Light Pipes on Campus

1. On-Demand Light Pipes on Campus Possibilities

2. Some Observations • ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) uses virtual circuits (remember PVCs and DVCs?) with bit rate selectors (Variable and fixed). • QoS was built in from the beginning • Circuit setup was very clumsy • It basically worked as advertised – sub-circuit provisioning was possible • It is a resounding market failure. • Predictable performance (latency, jitter, bandwidth) is needed by some applications. • Real circuits are easier to reason about • Software is simple • Real circuits don’t scale in the Internet sense • Current routers cannot in reality deliver predictable performance • Most applications don’t need their predictable network all of the timed • Store-forward packet switches have real scalability limits • O(64) 10GigE full-rate ports is the practical $$ limit.

3. UCSD Quartzite Core at Completion (Year 5 of OptIPuter) • Funded 15 Sep 2004 • Physical HW to Enable Optiputer and Other Campus Networking Research • Hybrid Network Instrument Reconfigurable Network and Enpoints

4. Glimmerglass Optical Switch

5. One Model of Use • The “precious” resource is the number of ports available in full-bisection packet switch • Provision each site with multiple wavelengths • 1 fiber – eg. 8 wavelengths • 1 wavelength is always active • 7 wavelengths on standby • When needed, use OOO switch to connect a standby wavelength to the packet-switched core or directly to another receiver (packet-switch bypass). • This is the way the “old phone system worked” – everybody had a line, but not all lines could be connected at the same time. • “Standard Internet” always available. • Aside: Part of Quartzite motivation was to experiment with TWIN (Time division, wavelength interleaved network) . This is one possible way to affect sub-lambda division inexpensively.