Cost Efficient Network Slicing for Optical Packet Switched Torus Data Centers

In this paper, for the first time, a cost efficient network slicing method is proposed for torus data centers, based on optical packet switching transport. The torus optical packet switched rings are separately synchronized, so the electronic regrooming is employed at the nodes connecting different rings, for the inter-ring transit of traffic. In the proposed network slicing method called "BOSS network slicing", the use of optical circuit switching over the so-called "network slicing paths" is introduced, in order to leverage the low cost network operation. The resulting network has the hybrid optical packet/circuit switching architecture. Next, an optimal network planning tool is developed to evaluate the cost efficiency of BOSS network slicing, in terms of needed optical interfaces and optical fibers, when compared with network slicing in purely optical packet switched torus. The numerical results show that BOSS network slicing can reduce the number of optical interfaces in network by up to 33%.