Title

Photonic Technologies for Datacenter Networking

Speaker

Dr. Cedric F. Lam, Google Inc.

Abstract

The author will review the growing trend of warehouse-scale mega-datacenter computing, the Internet transformation driven by mega-datacenter applications, and the opportunities and challenges for fiber optic communication technologies to support the growth of mega-datacenter computing in the next three to four years.

In this talk, we will start from the basic architectural structure of mega data centers, the bandwidth and energy efficiency challenge in scaling datacenter networks. Then we discuss the importance of photonic interconnects in scaling datacenter networks. We will also discuss the myths of photonic switching in data networking applications and compare photonic switching with electronic switching.

Biography

Dr. Cedric F. Lam is currently heading an R&D team working on Google's Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) initiative. Prior to starting the FTTH effort, he worked on optical technologies for datacenter networks.

Before joining Google, Cedric was chief system architect at OpVista Inc., responsible for the development of an ultra-dense WDM transport system with integrated ROADM functionality. Prior to OpVista, Cedric was senior technical staff member at AT&T Labs-Research. His research covers broadband optical transport and access networks architectures, optical signal modulation and transmission, passive optical network, HFC, etc. His current focus is in optical networking technologies for data center applications and Fiber-to-the-Home. Dr. Lam received B.Eng. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Hong Kong with First Class Honors and PhD. In Electrical Engineering from UCLA