Low-Latency Optical Switching for Disaggregated Data Center Architectures
Keywords:
optical switching; disaggregated data centers; low-latency interconnects; hollow core fiber; resource pooling; reconfigurable networks; sustainability; governanceAbstract
Disaggregated data center architectures seek to decouple compute, memory, storage, and accelerators into independently scalable resource pools that can be composed dynamically according to workload demand. This architectural shift intensifies pressure on the interconnection fabric, because resources that were once co-located within a server must now communicate across rack, row, and hall scales under stringent latency and tail-latency constraints. Low-latency optical switching has emerged as a promising foundation for such fabrics, offering high bandwidth density, low signal loss, reduced energy per bit over distance, and the possibility of reconfigurable topology. However, optical switching also introduces structural trade-offs involving circuit setup time, control-plane complexity, buffering, fault management, multi-tenancy, and deployment economics. This paper examines low-latency optical switching for disaggregated data centers from a system-level perspective. It analyzes architectural drivers, switching technologies, latency and reconfiguration trade-offs, governance models, deployment pathways, robustness, fairness, sustainability, and policy implications. The discussion emphasizes that optical disaggregation is not merely a component substitution but a socio-technical transition requiring coordinated advances in photonics, scheduling, standards, operations, and procurement. The paper concludes that low-latency optical fabrics can improve resource utilization and energy efficiency, yet their benefits depend on careful treatment of failure domains, interoperability, fairness guarantees, and lifecycle governance.
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