This project is designed to investigate new dynamically switched optical networking architectures using dynamic optical network technologies that leverage photonic integrated circuits (PICs). These technologies have the potential to impact Future Internet architecture by offering a dynamic, reconfigurable, high-bandwidth networking medium not available in today's Internet. There is great benefit to move network infrastructures like GENI and Future Internet to dynamic optical switching technologies that provide better scaling, lower power and smaller footprint. Virtualization of optical transport network characteristics, like topology and bandwidth, are examples of new capabilities possible with DOCS technology. The expected outcome of this project will be new integrated optical technologies and networking algorithms and architectures that support low cost, dynamic optical circuit switching for future generation networks that rely on virtualization of bandwidth and connectivity. The potential impact of this work will be to overcome current technology and economic mismatches between local data networks and long distance data networks, realizing a network infrastructure that can support many simultaneous multi-gigabit experiments at low cost.
