Our prototype of a fully-functional asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch validates the design of a 128 Gb/s optoelectronic ATM switch. Optoelectronics, rather than all optical components, are used to simultaneously address all of the specific requirements mandated by the ATM protocol. In this paper, we present the Illinois pulsar-based optical interconnect (iPOINT) testbed, and present our results obtained for the prototype switch in a working environment consisting of an optical network of Sun SPARC Stations and other local and wide-area ATM switches. >

Scalable optoelectronic ATM networks: the iPOINT fully functional testbed

The computer-aided design tool can be used in choosing design parameter values that help lower the cost and increase reliability. Good tools are also necessary to minimize the length of the design cycle to bring products to market in a timely manner. Some tools exist that can be used for simulating and designing optical interconnects, but they are intended for electronics and are used for lack of tools more suitable for their unique needs. Currently, no computer-aided design tools encompass all the simulation methodologies required to address the design needs of optical interconnects. After reviewing briefly the various CAD tools that are available, the authors discuss in more detail two tools developed recently: iSMILE (illinois Simulator for the Modeling of Integrated-circuit Level Elements), a CAD tool for the rapid development and simulation of new circuit-level optoelectronics models; and iFROST (illinois FibeR-optic and Optoelectronic Systems Toolkit), a high-level simulator of digital lightwave links. >

Simulation and modeling: simulating optical interconnects

The characterization of ATM traffic is particularly important for developing and validating traffic models for the analysis of congestion control mechanisms, communication network protocols, and architectures for ATM networks. Unfortunately, little is known about the actual behavior of ATM traffic, since few ATM networks have been built and instrumented for measuring traffic. In this paper, we present an analysis of traffic mea1 Supported in part by BellSouth, GTE Corporation, and NSF and DARPA under cooperative agreement NCR-8919038 with the Corporation for National Research Initiative. surements from a medical application called Dynamic Radiation Therapy Planning which runs in a distributed fashion on the VISTAnet gigabit networking test bed. We believe that ours is one of the first measurements of traffic from a real application operating in a high-speed networking environment employing ATM technology. We show that our traffic measurements fit neatly into a proposed hierarchical traffic model which describes the traffic source behavior at different time-scales.

Analysis of Traffic Measurements in the VISTAnet Gigabit Networking Testbed

This paper describes no-race charge-recycling differential logic (NCDL) which realizes low power computation with less sensitivity to input signal skews. Performance comparison with previous charge recycling logics is shown for a 2-input NAND logic. NCDL operates in push-pull mode and achieves about 35% improvement in power-delay product over full swing differential logic without the pre-evaluation problems. Thus, it shows increased effectiveness for the implementation of random logic with input signals arriving in an arbitrary sequence.

No-race charge-recycling differential logic (NCDL)

FPGA technology has been used for the development and implementation of a prototype input queuing module of the Illinois Pulsar-based Optical INTconnect (iPOINT) Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) testbed. Pipeline techniques were extensively used to solve timing problems and increase throughput. This prototype queuing module has been fully tested for bandwidth of 100 Mbps. >

FPGA prototype queuing module for high performance ATM switching

This document presents the Illinois Pulsar{based Optical INTerconnect (iPOINT) testbed, a collaborative research e ort between the Microelectronics Center and the Computer Science Department at the University of Illinois investigating the use of Optical Electronic Integrated Circuits (OEICs) for high{bandwidth computer networking. Optoelectronic components are the enabling technology for multigigabit networks. This document discusses the system requirements and the device speci cations of the individual optical and electronic components of these networks. The packet switching technology required for computer network and variable bit rate tra c patterns is investigated. Architectures are discussed for multigigabit packet switches. The iPOINT Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) hardware prototype packet switch is presented. The network software and protocols needed to e ciently transport messages between the workstation's internal memory and the high{bandwidth ber interface are examined. The iPOINT user{space network software and kernel{space device driver that were developed to provide simultaneous audio, image, and le transfers among Sun SPARCstation 10's using ATM cells are introduced. Memory{to{ ber bandwidth benchmark data are presented. Suggestions for future optoelectronic device research and the topics of investigation for the next phase of the iPOINT testbed are given in Chapter 5. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Professors S. M. Kang and S. G. Bishop for their support and guidance throughout the iPOINT project. I would like to thank Professor R. H. Campbell who made the Xunet interaction at this university possible. I would like to acknowledge Chao Cheong for his work in programming the user{space application programs. Noted also is Haoran Duan for his work on the queue module. I would like to thank Ben Cox, an undergraduate CCSM intern, for his work in the development of the STREAMS device driver and gathering the performance data of the Fore device. Finally, thanks are due to Ben Sander, an undergraduate, for his work on the FPGA Pulsar switch. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE

B. Cox

Papers

The iPOINT testbed for optoelectronic ATM networking