Low-power coherent optical links for data center interconnects
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Hyperscale data centers built to accommodate variable traffic patterns supporting virtualization and cloud computing are evolving to employ a flatter network topology, comprising fewer layers of switches, but with much more interconnection between them. The requirements of these networks, coupled with expected compound annual growth rates of 32% for data center-to-data center IP traffic in the next five years, necessitate scaling the per-wavelength bit rates of optical links beyond 100 Gb/s while keeping power consumption and cost low. Coherent detection can offer the requisite performance demanded by future intra- and inter-data center links, but current implementations consume too much power and are too costly for optical transceivers needed for future data center networks. In the first part of this dissertation, we address the transmitter side of future coherent optical transceivers by designing and validating silicon-based Mach-Zehnder modulators. We leverage the efficiency of the silicon modulator to configure submillimeter-length coherent modulators that can be driven by low-power CMOS drivers and show that their performance can match existing lithium niobate modulators for coherent transmission. We further leverage the efficiency of the silicon-based modulators by segmenting them and showing that higher-order modulation formats can be generated by driving segmented modulators with only binary signals, precluding the need for expensive and power-hungry linear drivers and digital-to-analog converters. The second part of this dissertation addresses coherent receivers for future optical transceivers. We propose various analog coherent receiver architectures that do not employ the high-speed DSP and analog-to-digital converters that make existing DSP-based coherent receivers power-hungry and costly. Implementing these analog coherent receivers for data center links requires performing functions, such as carrier recovery and polarization demultiplexing, that are typically done using DSP. We propose and simulate a marker tone-based polarization demultiplexing solution using an optical polarization controller consisting of a sequence of phase shifters.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2017 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Shastri, Anujit |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Electrical Engineering. |
| Primary advisor | Kahn, Joseph |
| Thesis advisor | Kahn, Joseph |
| Thesis advisor | Fan, Shanhui, 1972- |
| Thesis advisor | Miller, D. A. B |
| Advisor | Fan, Shanhui, 1972- |
| Advisor | Miller, D. A. B |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Anujit Shastri. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2017. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2017 by Anujit Kalpendu Shastri
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Also listed in
Loading usage metrics...