When combined with optical links and switches, deflection routing yields simple bufferless nodes, high-bit rates, scalable throughput, and low latency. We discuss the problem of packet synchronization in synchronous optical deflection networks with nodes distributed across boards, racks, and cabinets.
Synchronous operation is feasible due to very predictable optical propagation delays.
A routing control processor at each node examines arriving packets and assigns them to output ports. Using a directed graph network model, we formulate a constrained minimization problem for minimizing link delays subject to synchronization and packaging constraints. We demonstrate our method on a ShuffleNet graph, and show modifications to handle multiple packet sizes and latency-critical paths. All Rights Reserved. The full text of is available to members of the IEEE Computer Society who have an online subscription and an e-account .