Eindhoven-born optical switch saves costs, power and reduces latency

Researchers of Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) have devised a new optical switch for data centers that can halve the costs and power consumption and reduce network latency.

Power consumption by data centers is increasing at an alarming rate. Although the data is already transported via energy-efficient optical fibers, most of the interconnecting switches are still electrical, which is less energy efficient and causes high latency. Optical switches are the obvious answer, but so far, lack of optical data buffering and the low throughput of direct connections between optical switches, have prevented their widespread adoption.

TUE PhD student Fulong Yan tackled this problem by buffering data packets on an electrical switch. Together with his colleagues, he demonstrated an 8-port prototype of this new switch. They also designed and simulated a 16-port version, which is expected to be fully operational by 2022.