On the future integrated datacenter networks: Designs, operations, and solutions

Inter-datacenter networks (Inter-DCNs) and Intra-datacenter networks (Intra-DCNs) are entirely different in communication scales, architecture topologies and sizes, and characteristics of traffic flows. An Inter-DCN is built upon the existing Internet backbone with a fixed mesh topology and is hence difficult to accommodate any physical update or change without significant human intervention. Several core nodes of the backbone network are connecting to Intra-DCNs forming the so-called datacenter (DC) nodes. Different Inter-DCN or Intra-DCN architectures imply different network constructions overhead. An optimized combination of Inter-DCN and Intra-DCN architecture is expected to minimize the construction complexity and cost of DCNs while maintaining efficient network performance. However, research work in this important area has received little attention. In this paper, we study the construction of integrated Inter- and Intra- datacenter networks (integrated-DCN). Specifically, by taking advantages of different optical switching technologies and embedding the new control technology of software defined networking (SDN) in the control plane of integrated-DCN, novel cost-effective DCN architecture will be developed. For the proposed integrated architecture, the important characteristic of traffic asymmetry is investigated and accommodated by developing asymmetric network configuration based on SDN-assisted traffic monitoring/prediction, and the issue of network survivability/availability is explored and addressed by taking into consideration of the unique feature of DCN traffic.