MEMS and its Applications Optical Routing, an example Shashi Mysore Computer Science UCSB

Outline MEMS –Introduction, application, fabrication Generic router –Features and drawbacks Optical Solution Optical Router Projects –Stanford 100Tbps Lucent LambdaRouter GMPLS light path setup

What is MEMS? Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems integration of mechanical elements, sensors, actuators, and electronics on a common silicon substrate

Generic System abstraction Process InputOutput What’s challenging? The input, output, processing elements are almost so varied that they are manufactured differently Interfacing problem – speed mismatch, transferring signal is difficult

MEMS Applications

Medical Applications

Micro-fabrication Micromechanical components – micromachining IC process

MEMS Manufacturing

Micromotor Fabrication example Micromotor Fabrication Example

MEMS devices

Scale comparison Cisco GSR Juniper M160 6ft 19 ” 2ft Capacity: 160Gb/s Power: 4.2kW 3ft 2.5ft 19 ” Capacity: 80Gb/s Power: 2.6kW Whirlwind (1940)

Technology Trend and Roadmap

Mems patents issued per year

MEMS in today’s Networks

Outline MEMS –Introduction, application, fabrication Generic router –Features and drawbacks Optical Solution Optical Router Projects –Stanford 100Tbps Lucent LambdaRouter GMPLS light path setup

Generic Router Architecture Lookup IP Address Update Header Header Processing Address Table Address Table Lookup IP Address Update Header Header Processing Address Table Address Table Lookup IP Address Update Header Header Processing Address Table Address Table Buffer Manager Buffer Memory Buffer Memory Buffer Manager Buffer Memory Buffer Memory Buffer Manager Buffer Memory Buffer Memory Switch Fabric Linecards

Performance trends Router capacity x2.2/18 months DRAM access rate x1.1/18 m Moore’s law x2/18 m

Internet traffic x2/yr Router capacity x2.2/18 months 5x Relative Performance Increase

All-optical networks An all-optical network is one in which information is carried via light particles – or photons - from PC to PC, without ever having to be converted to electrical signals

OEO conversions are costly Electronic switches have managed to keep up with increasing bandwidths; Data sent increasing twice as fast as the routing capacity However, Optical-Electrical-Optical conversions are costly!

Data storage in optics Data storage is a critical problem for an optical router. Optical solution - Bell Laboratories’ photonic IC keeps optical signals circulating around within the chip

Optical Router projects Stanford 100Tbps Optical Router –Optical switching and Communications System Laboratory UCDavis, UCSC, Colorado University, etc, $12.5 million grant from DARPA for Lucent Bell Labs "The result of this work will be a scalable prototype system that will digitally manipulate optical beams, like radio beams are manipulated today, enabling better communications over farther distances," -Mike Geller, vice president of Lucent's Government Communications Lab.

Arbitration 160Gb/s Switch Fabric Line termination IP packet processing Packet buffering Line termination IP packet processing Packet buffering Gb/s Gb/s Electronic Linecard #1 Electronic Linecard #625 Request Grant (100Tb/s = 625 * 160Gb/s) Stanford 100Tb/s router project

Racks with 160Gb/s linecards DRAM Queue Manager SRAM Lookup DRAM Queue Manager SRAM Lookup

100Tb/s Router Optical Switch Fabric Racks of 160Gb/s Linecards Optical links

Passive Optical Switching n n 1 2 n Midstage Linecard 1 Midstage Linecard 2 Midstage Linecard n Ingress Linecard 1 Ingress Linecard 2 Ingress Linecard n 1 2 n Egress Linecard 1 Egress Linecard 2 Egress Linecard n nn Integrated AWGR or diffraction grating based wavelength router

Outline MEMS –Introduction, application, fabrication Generic router –Features and drawbacks Optical Solution Optical Router Projects –Stanford 100Tbps Lucent LambdaRouter GMPLS light path setup

Lucent LambdaRouter Density micro mirrors fit on a one-square-inch chip Compact switching fabric - 32 times greater switching density Tilting mirrors - individual wavelength can be passed to any of 256 input and output fibers. Power reduction – upto 100-fold over electronic fabric solutions. “Instant Internet" and other high-speed data and video services "As communications networks evolve, optical technology will be at the core of these networks and make its way out toward the edges -- bringing unlimited capacity and speed to the desktop and someday, even the home,"

Micro mirrors Routing light through Micro mirrors

LambdaRouter LambdaRouter with a shared pool of wavelength converters  Multiple bi-directional fibres  Interconnect LambdaRouters  Incoming signals demultiplexed  Optical Switching  Outputs are wavelength multiplexed Beware of wavelenght collisions!

GMPLS Lightpath setup Data plane – all optical Optical layer control plane – required to provision lightpaths Use GMPLS to solve the problem? –Call blocking probability metric

RSVP-TE Lightpath Setup

GMPLS - Wavelength converters

GMPLS – Crankback feature

Challenges in MEMS technology Advanced Simulation and modeling tools Packaging needs improvement Though started in 1960s, the amount of R&D investment has begun only in the past 10 years Multidisciplinary study

Thanks Some slides/figures borrowed from Stanford 100Tbps project, Colorado University presentation, Bell Labs, and news articles