• Presents the most recent and promising solutions in the domain of the optical interconnects for data center networks
• Covers an inter-disciplinary topic for all the communities that are actively in the domain of computer networks, interconnects, optical switching, and data center networks
• Provides an appropriate introduction to the topic of optical interconnects while also serving as a definitive reference work for the advanced practitioner or researcher

 

by Keren Bergman and Gil Zussman

The Internet is a crucial worldwide infrastructure that connects over two billion people, offering more than seven billion web pages, transporting roughly 30 exabytes of data a month, and connecting over a billion mobile broadband users. Emerging network services will enable various transformative applications such as 3-D holographic video for telepresence in education and telemedicine. However, the realization of the future Internet requires overcoming significant technological obstacles, which include significant growth in Internet traffic and energy consumption as well as the need to support diverse applications and traffic requirements.

Internet traffic continues to grow at an exponential rate, doubling roughly every one and a half years, driven by an increasing number of users, bandwidth-intensive applications such as video-on-demand, and numerous mobile and wireless platforms. Moreover, the Internet and the cellular networks already account for about 1 percent of the global carbon emissions, and their portion is steadily increasing.

Columbia University was one of the main contributors to the development of the Internet, and since the 1980s, Columbia has retained a leading position in the area of networking. Currently, several faculty members in the Engineering School's Departments of Electrical Engineering and of Computer Science continue this tradition by dealing with the challenges imposed by issues such as traffic growth, heterogeneous networks, mobility, quality of service requirements, and energy consumption constraints.

Specific areas of research include data center networking (Professors Keren Bergman, Vishal Misra, and Dan Rubenstein), wireless networking (Professors Augustin Chaintreau, Nicholas Maxemchuk, Vishal Misra, Dan Rubenstein, Henning Schulzrinne, Xiaodong Wang, and Gil Zussman), optical networking (Bergman), social networking (Chaintreau), the Internet of Things and cyber-physical systems (Maxemchuk, Schulzrinne, and Zussman), smart grid (Professors Javad Lavaei, Maxemchuk, and Zussman), and future Internet protocols (Misra and Schulzrinne).

The work we do in this field is highly interdisciplinary; for instance, our joint work on access and aggregation networks, both optical and wireless. While the Internet core supports very high data rates by using high-capacity links, routers, and switches, there are major bottlenecks between the core and the access/aggregation networks (i.e., the networks covering metropolitan areas). We are both members of the NSF-funded Center for Integrated Access Networks (CIAN), a 10-university consortium led by the University of Arizona. The Center's vision is to create transformative technologies for optical aggregation networks, where any application requiring any resource can be seamlessly and efficiently aggregated and interfaced with existing and future core networks at low cost and with high energy efficiency

Recent advances in the field of optical communications provide new capabilities to optical elements. Instead of functioning as a simple bit pipe, modern devices can continuously make optical measurements on the quality of the data flowing through the links (e.g., measure the bit error rate or optical signal-to-noise ratio). Such measurements can be made directly in the optical domain, without having to convert the signal to the electrical domain. In addition to measurement capabilities, new devices can be dynamically programmed by a network management layer and dynamically configured based on the needs of the network. Our work focuses on leveraging these novel capabilities and the new devices that are being developed by the Center's researchers in order to develop the CIANbox. The CIAN-box is an information aggregation node that uses real-time optical performance measurements and energy consumption monitoring, to enable application and impairment-aware switching, regeneration, and adaptive coding. Our groups are developing the CIAN-box hardware as well as the software and algorithms that will leverage its capabilities.

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This book focuses heavily on the principles, analysis and applications of code-division multiple-access (CDMA) techniques in optical communication systems and networks.
The authors intimately discuss modern optical networks and their applications in current and emerging communication technologies, evaluating the quality, speed and number of supported services. In particular, principles and fundamentals of optical CDMA techniques from beginner to advanced levels are heavily covered. Furthermore, the authors concentrate on methods and techniques of various encoding and decoding schemes and their structures, as well as analysis of optical CDMA systems with various transceiver models including advanced multi-level incoherent and coherent modulations with the architecture of access/aggregation networks in mind. Moreover, authors examine intriguing topics of optical CDMA networking, compatibility with IP networks, and implementation of optical multi-rate multi-service CDMA networks.

Key features:

• Expanded coverage of optical CDMA networks, starts from principles and fundamentals
• Comprehensive mathematical modelling and analysis from signal to system levels
• Addresses the applications of modern optical networking in the current and emerging communication technologies
• Greater focus on advanced optical multi-level incoherent and coherent modulations, spreading codes, and transceiver designs
• Detailed hardware specifications, system-level block diagrams, and network nodes' functionalities

This book appeals to researchers, practicing engineers, and advanced students. It is a practical resource for readers with an interest in optical communications and networks.

The UA, USC and other institutions are building the future of communications using light.

Researchers from the University of Arizona, the University of Southern California and seven other institutions are attempting to save the Internet by making it cheaper, faster and better.

With the rising demand for Internet access outstripping the existing Internet capacity, scientists are turning to optoelectronic technology – transmitting data using light. The technology is well-established but is still being developed in order to handle the increasing data loads that users require.

In 2008, the National Science Foundation gave a five-year, $18.5 million grant to establish an engineering research center that is based at the UA and unites it with USC and the other universities in a collaboration known as the Center for Integrated Access Networks, or CIAN.

CIAN's goal is to solve the data crisis by bringing optoelectronic technology to its full potential.

"CIAN is aimed at transforming the Internet to a high-speed network that uses less energy, is more reliable so that it reconfigures itself around network impairments, is scalable to make it suitable for a growing number of end users, and is not too costly," said Nasser Peyghambarian, chair of photonics and aasers in the College of Optical Sciences at the UA.

"The UA and USC and seven other university partners are working together on improving the reliability of the network as well as the network speed and cost," he said.

Other partner institutions in the CIAN are the University of California, San Diego; the California Institute of Technology; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University; Norfolk State University and Tuskegee University.

"We're using optics to enable higher capacity communications," said Alan Willner, Steven and Kathryn Sample Chair in Engineering of the USC Dornsife College. Willner and Columbia professor Keren Bergman are leading the system and networking research for the group.

"I can send 10 gigabits per second across the backbone of the national network," Willner said. "The problem is, how do you get 10 gigabits to every home, every access point?"

Now in its fourth year, the nine-university collaboration has made important breakthroughs in transforming the way large amounts of data are transmitted.

In a paper published earlier this year in Optics Communications, a team of researchers including Willner and lead author Hacene Mahieddine Chaouch, a graduate research assistant at the UA, developed three new methods of restoring degraded optical signals – a key hurdle to overcome when transmitting big chunks of data.

Willner said he hopes that one day, computer terminals will come equipped with chips that use these methods to clean up damaged data.

Said Peyghambarian: "The Internet continues to transform people's lives, and collaborative projects like CIAN, allowed by NSF and industrial support, allows multiple schools around the world working together to push the boundaries of human knowledge."

PASADENA, Calif.--Stretching for thousands of miles beneath oceans, optical fibers now connect every continent except for Antarctica. With less data loss and higher bandwidth, optical-fiber technology allows information to zip around the world, bringing pictures, video, and other data from every corner of the globe to your computer in a split second. But although optical fibers are increasingly replacing copper wires, carrying information via photons instead of electrons, today's computer technology still relies on electronic chips.

PASADENA, Calif.--Stretching for thousands of miles beneath oceans, optical fibers now connect every continent except for Antarctica. With less data loss and higher bandwidth, optical-fiber technology allows information to zip around the world, bringing pictures, video, and other data from every corner of the globe to your computer in a split second. But although optical fibers are increasingly replacing copper wires, carrying information via photons instead of electrons, today's computer technology still relies on electronic chips.

Now, researchers led by engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) are paving the way for the next generation of computer-chip technology: photonic chips. With integrated circuits that use light instead of electricity, photonic chips will allow for faster computers and less data loss when connected to the global fiber-optic network.

"We want to take everything on an electronic chip and reproduce it on a photonic chip," says Liang Feng, a postdoctoral scholar in electrical engineering and the lead author on a paper to be published in the August 5 issue of the journal Science. Feng is part of Caltech's nanofabrication group, led by Axel Scherer, Bernard A. Neches Professor of Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, and Physics, and co-director of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech.

In that paper, the researchers describe a new technique to isolate light signals on a silicon chip, solving a longstanding problem in engineering photonic chips.
An isolated light signal can only travel in one direction. If light weren't isolated, signals sent and received between different components on a photonic circuit could interfere with one another, causing the chip to become unstable. In an electrical circuit, a device called a diode isolates electrical signals by allowing current to travel in one direction but not the other. The goal, then, is to create the photonic analog of a diode, a device called an optical isolator. "This is something scientists have been pursuing for 20 years," Feng says.
Normally, a light beam has exactly the same properties when it moves forward as when it's reflected backward. "If you can see me, then I can see you," he says. In order to isolate light, its properties need to somehow change when going in the opposite direction. An optical isolator can then block light that has these changed properties, which allows light signals to travel only in one direction between devices on a chip.
"We want to build something where you can see me, but I can't see you," Feng explains. "That means there's no signal from your side to me. The device on my side is isolated; it won't be affected by my surroundings, so the functionality of my device will be stable."

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Keren Bergman gets as aggravated as anyone by how long it takes to email a video of her son's recital to her parents. Unlike most people, Bergman, a professor of electrical engineering and department chair at the engineering school, can do something about it.

Bergman specializes in optical data, and her central research project involves the fiber optic network--the portion of the Web that consists of optical fibers over which data can be sent in the form of light waves. Fiber optics can handle large files--including the huge files of high-definition video--faster than traditional copper wires. Even so, the fiber optic network as it is currently configured isn't very efficient.

"It's like one big, dumb pipe," Bergman says, adding that not much progress can be made if the pipe doesn't smarten up. Internet traffic around the world reached 176 billion gigabytes in 2009, according to a report from the networking firm Cisco Systems Inc., an enormous amount of data for a network developed in the 1970s for a few thousand researchers.

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A major advance in holographic video achieved by the University of Arizona-led Center for integrated Access Networks has been receiving worldwide attention. It is the Featured Achievement at Here and Here . Note the accompanying video interviews with Center Director Nasser Peyghambarian and other videos demonstrating the technology.

I'm excited to learn about all aspects of CIAN's education programs and look forward to being part of the CIAN team. I invite you to contact me with any questions or suggestions.
In my role as education evaluator, I will help the team to measure the learning outcomes of the curriculum, to document the benefits to students of being part of collaborative research, and to gain perspective from industry contacts about what they would like to see in our graduates.
A little about my background: I'm originally from Nogales, Arizona. I've been doing evaluations for many (>25) years and completed my PhD in Educational Psychology in 1996. I have also coordinated science and Honors outreach programs, served as an academic advisor, and taught courses in evaluation, program planning and learning. I volunteer in the Tucson community in animal-assisted therapy and serve on the board of the Arizona Evaluation Network and several "topical interest groups" (TIGs) of the American Evaluation Association (e.g., Organizational Learning & Evaluation Capacity Building, Environmental Program Evaluation). My undergraduate degree was in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology.

Allison
Allison L. Titcomb, Ph.D.
Education Evaluation Specialist
NSF Research Center for Integrated Access Networks
College of Optical Sciences
The University of Arizona
520-626-2522
atitcomb@optics.arizona.edu
www.cian-erc.org

Dear CIAN Collaborators,

Letting you know that the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) grant we worked on together has been awarded!

Just heard from NSF Program Director Esther Bolding; NSF will fund 10 REU students per year for 3 years. This will be supplemented by 2 REU positions from base CIAN funding for a total of 12 per year for 3 years:

UA: 4 – Kueppers, Khitrova, Norwood, Seraphin (student services with SROP)
UCSD: 3 – Fainman, Vahdat, Lomakin (student services with STARS)
Berkeley: 1 – Wu (student services with SUPERB)
UCLA: 2 – Huffaker, Jalali (student services with CENS)
Columbia: 2 – Zussman, Bergman (student services with NSEC)

Your work on the proposal made this possible – thanks for your letters of support, research descriptions, advice, and help with the budget (Rick, will be easier next time!).

Please plan to hear from me soon regarding IOU student selection; I'm looking forward to our work together.

Have a great weekend, Meredith --

Meredith Kupinski, Ph.D.
Director of Education
Engineering Research Center
for Integrated Access Networks
University of Arizona
College of Optical Sciences
520.626.3985
meredith@optics.arizona.edu
www.cian-erc.org

CIAN is pleased to announce the addition of Dr. John W. Wissinger to the Professional Staff of the Center for Integrated Access Networks (CIAN), an NSF Engineering Research Center. As Associate Director for Industry Collaboration, Dr. Wissinger will be responsible for establishing and maintaining collaborative relationships between CIAN Faculty and Student Researchers and Industry. He will help facilitate, in a liaison capacity, the expansion of CIAN's Industry Advisory Board and making relevant industry collaborations with the areas of research and education.

Dr. Wissinger is an accomplished and experienced engineer and manager, with a diverse background in product development and business models. He most recently worked at Veeco Instruments (as VP/GM), a global public company manufacturing process equipment, analytic instrumentation, and metrology tools for nanotechnology applications. Prior to that time, he worked for NP Photonics (VP Engineering), a venture-backed startup engineering micro-fiber optical amplifiers and fiber lasers, and for Alphatech Inc. (Division Manager, Signal & Image Processing), a private company which was acquired as BAE Systems Advanced Information Technology Division, where he developed specialized algorithms and software products. Dr. Wissinger received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Rice University, and his PhD in EECS from MIT.

CSE Members awarded the Gordon Engineering Leadership Fellow. Amin Vahdat, Professor in the department of Computer Science and Engineering and CSE undergraduate Sarah Esper, have been awarded the Gordon Engineering Leadership Center's Gordon Fellows.

The Gordon Center was established in January 2009 with the mission of educating and training effective engineering leaders who create new products and jobs that benefit society. In order to provide positive role models for students of engineering, the Gordon Center holds an annual awards ceremony to recognize exemplary engineers at the high school, undergraduate, graduate, and professional level. Recipients of the Gordon Fellows Medal not only must be outstanding engineers within their respective fields but must also have a proven record of leadership successes.

To learn more about the Gordon Center's mission and goals, please click here.

As the country presses forward in developing green energy and Los Angeles strives to become a hub of clean technology, UCLA Associate Professor Diana Huffaker noticed there was one thing still missing: a program to train the future leaders of environmental industry in L.A.

So she created it -- and, working with about 20 other professors, won support for it: $3 million in stimulus funding via a highly competitive grant from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Integrative Graduate Education Research Traineeship (IGERT) award.

The Clean Energy for Green Industry Fellowship, designed to develop leaders in environmental energy, could start as soon as the upcoming winter quarter. It will grant Ph.D. students a $33,000 stipend for pursuing coursework in the science, business and policies of clean technology.

"Over the course of the five-year program, we'll graduate 33 Ph.D.s with expertise in energy storage, energy harvesting and energy conservation," Huffaker said.

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The National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education Research Traineeship on Clean Energy for Green Industry at UCLA (CGI) is a 3 year fellowship^* that provides a $30,000 stipend/year , tuition, fees, travel stipend to participate in a scientific conference or workshop, internships and international experience. The fellowship will develop leaders in environmental energy through integrated research and coursework in the science, business and policies of clean technology. Completion of a 1-3 month cross-disciplinary internship with an industrial partner or national laboratory is encouraged.

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