Project description
Photonics
Big Data requires Big Pipes. Driven by mobile devices, cloud computing and machine-to-machine Internet, the amount of data processed by data centres continues to grow with a steep progression. Ongoing trends in server virtualisation and green computing morph the data centre architecture and place increasing constraints on the interconnect technology. To meet the need for increased bandwidth, transceiver compactness, reduced power consumption and cost effectiveness for the next generation of data centre and campus-wide communications systems, we are going to develop Broadband Integrated and Green Photonic Interconnects for High-Performance Computing and Enterprise Systems (BIG PIPES). BIG PIPES will reach the industry target of 400 Gbps transceiver modules with a highly integrated technology aiming at aggressively extending the limits of compactness, power consumption (below 30mW/Gbps) and cost-effectiveness, with the objective of providing an optical engine for future 12x25 Gbps CXP and 16x25 Gbps CFP4 modules. To deconstrain the switch board architecture, we will package these optical engines in mid-board optical modules. High campus-wide data throughput is expected to be pivotal in supporting growing data-centre dimensions, as well as modularity in data centre architectures. To enable ultra-broadband transceivers optimally utilising a single integrated light source, we will develop spectrally efficient links reaching 1 Tbps and above. The developed communication system technologies will leverage integrated, mode-locked comb sources to allow both compactness and novel system architectures. The research project will comprise the development of tailored comb sources, the exploration of novel system architectures, as well as the development of photonic devices and assembly technologies enabling system integration. A research intensive SME and the market leader in the high performance InfiniBand segment will keep the project focused on an industrial roadmap.
Fields of science
Topic(s)
Call for proposal
FP7-ICT-2013-11
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
CP - Collaborative project (generic)Coordinator
52062 Aachen
Germany