Bit Error Rate Analysis of Hybrid Buffer-Based Switch for Optical Data Centers

Data centers are very critical elements which store and distribute data over the Internet. current data centers heavily rely on electronics, and thus require vast amount of power and speed is limited. These limitations can be tackled using optical technology. In general optical devices consume lesser amount of power, and support very high data rates. In this paper, a hybrid buffer-based optical packet switch which can be used in data centers as aggregated or core switches is discussed. The physical layer analysis is presented and performance is measured in terms of bit error rate (BER) obtained at various power levels. The analysis is carried out in presence of crosstalk of various components and for acceptable BER≤10–9, minimum power required for all optical, all electronic and hybrid buffer is evaluated. Finally power penalty is also evaluated which is required to overcome the effect of amplified spontaneous noise (ASE) and components crosstalk.