Energy-Efficient VCSEL Array Using Power and Offset Allocation of Spatial Multiplexing in Graded-Index Multimode Fiber

• Published in: Journal of lightwave technology Vol. 35; no. 11; pp. 2098 - 2108
• Main Authors: Sheffi, Nir, Sadot, Dan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.06.2017; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Bit error rate; Data-centers; Division; Energy consumption; Energy efficiency; Fiber lasers; graded-index multimode fiber (GI-MMF); High performance computing; high performance computing (HPC); Interconnections; Laser modes; MIMO; mode division multiplexing (MDM); multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO); Multiplexing; Optical fibers; Optical interconnections; Optical interconnects; Photonics; Power consumption; Power demand; Resource management; Vertical cavity surface emission lasers; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers; vertical-cavity-surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs)
• ISSN: 0733-8724; 1558-2213
• DOI: 10.1109/JLT.2017.2656238

In recent years, we exhibit an exponential data traffic and electrical power consumption growth in high-performance computing (HPC) interconnects. Thus, Green Photonics, which tries to minimize the Joule/bit ratio, becomes a major subject of both public and scientific interest. A significant amount of the installations within these HPCs are graded-index multimode fibers using parallel rack-to-rack optical interconnects. These fibers enable the use of mode division multiplexing to increase the fiber's capacity. In this paper, we theoretically derive a power and offset allocation method for an intensity modulated optical multiple-input-multiple-output system with incoherent single-mode vertical cavity surface emitting laser array, which minimizes the electrical power consumption for a required bit rate and allowed bit error rate. This method outperforms simple equal bit and power allocation scheme, achieving a 45-55% electrical power save with a typicalrequired bit error rate of 10 −6 .