Leveraging Digital Twin Technologies: All-Photonics Networks-as-a-Service for Data Center Xchange in the Era of AI [Invited Tutorial]

TL;DR

This paper introduces a digital twin-enabled architecture for all-photonics networks-as-a-service, facilitating scalable, low-latency, and reliable data center interconnections with remote control and automation capabilities.

Contribution

It proposes a novel digital twin-based architecture for optical networks supporting remote management, automation, and large-scale data center interconnectivity, validated through field tests.

Findings

Feasibility of digital twin operations for optical networks demonstrated.

Cloud-native architecture enables remote transponder control and fast provisioning.

Field validations confirm the effectiveness of proposed technologies.

Abstract

This paper presents a data center exchange (Data Center Xchange, DCX) architecture for all-photonics networks-as-a-service in distributed data center infrastructures, enabling the creation of a virtual large-scale data center by directly interconnecting distributed data centers in metropolitan areas. Key requirements for such an architecture are identified: support for low-latency operations, scalability, reliability, and flexibility within a single network architecture; the ability to add new operator-driven automation functionalities based on an open networking approach; and the ability to control and manage remotely deployed transponders connected via access links with unknown physical parameters. We propose a set of technologies that enable digital twin operations for optical networks, including a cloud-native architecture for coherent transceivers, remote transponder control, fast end-to-end optical path provisioning, transceiver-based physical-parameter estimation incorporating digital longitudinal monitoring, and optical line system calibration, demonstrating their feasibility through field validations.