A survey of hybrid optical data center network architectures

This paper presents a survey of data center network architectures that use both optical and packet switching components. Various proposed architectures and their corresponding network operation details are discussed. Electronic processing-based packet switch architectures and hybrid optical–electronic-based switch architectures are presented. These hybrid optical switch architectures use optical switching elements in addition to traditional electronic processing entities. The choice of components used for realizing functionality including the network interfaces, buffers, lookup elements and the switching fabrics have been analyzed. These component choices are summarized for different architectures. A qualitative comparison of the various architectures is also presented.