Examination Committee

Prof Ping SHENG, PHYS/HKUST (Chairperson)
Prof Jiang XU, ECE/HKUST (Thesis Supervisor)
Prof Zili SHAO, Department of Computing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (External Examiner)
Prof Chin-Tau LEA, ECE/HKUST
Prof Ming LIU, ECE/HKUST
Prof Zhigang LI, MAE/HKUST

Abstract

With the increasing number of processing cores on a single die, the traditional Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) interconnects hardly keep up with the demands of high-bandwidth and low latency communication. Various optical interconnection networks with the optical on-chip optical crossbars have been proposed to meet the ultra-high on-chip bandwidth requirements. More recently, optical interconnection networks have been further developed, where they have not only covered the intra-chip but also inter-chip communication. These networks consist of two different interconnection parts: the optical intra-chip and inter-chip for on-chip and among-the-chips communication, respectively. An inter/intra-chip optical interconnection network, I2CON, was proposed. It consists of two different interconnection parts: the optical inter-chip network and the optical intra-chip network. 
 
One key issue for these WDM inter/intra-chip optical interconnection network is the crosstalk noise. Crosstalk noise is an intrinsic characteristic of the optical components. Depending on the architecture of the network, the crosstalk noise can be intensified among numerous optical components in various combinations. Moreover, with the presence of a large number of wavelengths in one single waveguide (i.e. WDM-based), crosstalk noise from different wavelengths may affect the detected signal on a wavelength. Hence, in this thesis, we analyze the crosstalk noise and its impact on the SNR of the inter/intra-chip optical interconnection network. In this work, we have also investigated a method, called Adaptive Power Control (APC), which can reduce the crosstalk noise. We demonstrate the effect of this method in a candidate of the inter/intra-chip optical interconnection network, called I2CON.