Simulation of an optical network system for a space based high performance computer system

Abstract

An important future addition for a Space Based High Performance Computer System is a high-speed optical network for faster data transmission. The purpose of this project is to research and simulate next generation computing applications on high-speed optical networks. The research has been performed in the System Application context involving embedded high-performance computing applications and optical networking technology to guide future research and development of advanced optical devices. The research addresses advanced processing system issues in bandwidth, latency, protocol, topology, and fault tolerance in relation to high performance systems. The reference distributed computer, provided by BAE SYSTEMS in Nashua New Hampshire, consists of multiple processing nodes connected by a Myrinet copper network. The advanced embedded computing applications include Space-Based Radar Corner Turn processing, Synthetic Aperture Radar Back End processing, and Random Workload software models. Two Optical networks have been developed as part of this research to replace the reference Myrinet network, a Ring based network and a Star based network. Both networks employ redundancy to provide an alternate direct optical path between each pair of nodes. Of these networks the Ring design failed due to packet collisions and due to the need for a complex networking protocol. The Star Optical network design performed well in comparison to the reference network design. Overall, network latency was reduced and the internode data distribution speed was dramatically increased. Also, the memory usage for each of the three software models was analyzed and each has definite bound that will help future development. Although the results of this research are favorable, the eventual future design and implementation of a Space Based High Performance Computer System would benefit from additional research on a number of topics.