LIGHTWAVE
RESEARCH
LABORATORY AT
COLUMBIA
The Lightwave Research Laboratory (LRL)
of Columbia university conducts research
on state-of-the-art hardware/software optical
interconnection systems for applications in
telecommunications, data centers and high performance
computing. Leveraging the emerging technologies such
as silicon photonics, data analytics and Software-Defined
Networking (SDN), we performa broad range of research activities
from optical devices and subsystems to full system integration. LRL
consists of several testbeds and research pillars, following is a brief
overview of LRL CIAN-related research efforts.
Converged Data
Center Networks
The converged Inter/Intra data center project aims to design efficient optical networks for small- and mid-sized
geographically distributed data centers in metro-scale distances. Our proposed solutions support dynamic
bandwidth allocation throughout the network and various levels of Quality of Service (QoS). We have also
developed an autonomous control plane that monitors the data center-to-data center traffic on the metro
network and steers the bandwidth on the physical layer where it is needed the most. We utilize industry
standard SDN controllers such as OpenDayLight and RYU for the control plane software. We have built a testbed
to evaluate the designs; it consists of 3 data center nodes with 10G ports at the servers, equipped with both
OpenFlow optical and electrical switches, DWDM transceivers, connected by 5km and 25km of optical fiber in
a mesh topology.
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CIAN / Center for Integrated Access Networks