Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Paolo Costa

Hitesh Ballani

Christian L Belady

Winston Allen Saunders

Douglas M Carmean

Kai Shi

Antony Rowstron

Lisa Ru-feng Hsu

Daniel Jonathan Finchley Cletheroe

Lisa Ru-Feng Hsu

Charles Walter Boecker

Austin N Donnelly

Thomas Karagiannis

Gregory O'Shea

Istvan Haller

Foteini Karinou

Sophie Gloria Lange

Krzysztof Jozwik

Richard James Baca

Gilberto Brambilla

Raphael Eric Alfred Behrendt

Benn Charles Thomsen

Ariel Gomez Diaz

Virajith Jalaparti

Junyi Liu

Vasily Lyutsarev

Shawn Yohanes Siew

Kaoutar Benyahya

A transmission method comprising: encoding a message into error correction coding blocks, each comprising a different portion of the payload bits of the message and a respective plurality of error correction bits; and applying an interleaving map to error correction coding blocks, such that for each error correction coding block, different bits of the error correction coding block are mapped to different channels, each channel thus being used to transmit bits from a respective selection of multiple of the error correction coding blocks. Thus, for at least one channel failure scenario in which at least one of the plurality of channel fails leaving a plurality of remaining channels, enough bits will remain on the remaining channels to enable correction of the message based on the error correction coding.

Error-resistant data communication using multiple channels

A system for efficiently interconnecting computing nodes can include a plurality of computing nodes and a plurality of network switches coupled in parallel to the plurality of computing nodes. The system can also include a plurality of node interfaces. Each computing node among the plurality of computing nodes can include at least one node interface for each network switch among the plurality of network switches. The plurality of node interfaces corresponding to a computing node can be configured to send data to another computing node via the plurality of network switches. The system can also include a plurality of switch interfaces. Each network switch among the plurality of network switches can include at least one switch interface for each computing node among the plurality of computing nodes. A switch interface corresponding to the computing node can be coupled to a node interface corresponding to the computing node.

Efficiently interconnecting computing nodes to enable use of high-radix network switches

A switching network for effecting point-to-point communication between nodes has a time-varying switching configuration, which causes successive activation and deactivation of multiple channels of the switching network, a first of the channels connecting, when activated, a transmitter node and a first receiver node, and a second of the channels connecting, when activated, the transmitter node and a second receiver node. In a training phase, a method comprises: transmitting from the transmitter node via each channel a known training signal, to cause each receiver node to receive a distorted training signal, using the first distorted training signal and knowledge of the first known training signal to determine respective one or more transmit-side equalizer (EQ) coefficients for each channel, and storing, in memory accessible to the transmitter node, the first transmit-side EQ coefficients, in association with each channel, for use in conducting scheduled communications over the switching network in a communications phase.

Communication in a switching network

A method of fabricating a graded-index polymer optical fibre comprises preparing a cladding composition, the cladding composition comprising either a mixture of a cladding polymer and a dopant or a mixture of a cladding polymer precursor and a dopant; forming cladding from the cladding composition around a core, the core comprising a core polymer; and causing diffusion of the dopant into the core such that the dopant has a continuous concentration gradient, according to which concentration gradient the concentration of the dopant increases with radial distance from a centre of the core. The dopant is a compound having a refractive index which is lower than a refractive index of the core polymer. By distributing the dopant such that the dopant concentration is lowest at the centre of the core, the optical attenuation of the graded-index polymer optical fibre may be reduced. Also provided is a graded-index polymer optical fibre obtainable by the method.

Graded-index polymer optical fibre and the fabrication thereof

A method of fabricating a multi-core polymer optical fibre comprises arranging optical fibre preforms in a stack, the optical fibre preforms each comprising a polymer core and polymer cladding surrounding the polymer core; and drawing and bonding the stack to form the multi-core polymer optical fibre. Any contaminants or impurities which collect on outer surfaces of the preforms may be confined to boundaries between the preforms, which may avoid attenuation of signals passed through the cores while at the same time reducing crosstalk between cores of the final manufactured fibre. Also provided is a multi-core polymer optical fibre obtainable by the method.

Multi-core polymer optical fibre and the fabrication thereof

A system for using free-space optics to interconnect a plurality of computing nodes can include a plurality of optical transceivers that facilitate free-space optical communications among the plurality of computing nodes. The system may ensure a line of sight between the plurality of computing nodes and the optical transceivers to facilitate the free-space optical communications. The line of sight may be preserved by the position or placement of the computing nodes in the system. The position or placement of the computing nodes may be achieved by using different shaped enclosures for holding the computing nodes.

Sloping single point optical aggregation

A system for interconnecting a plurality of computing nodes includes a plurality of optical circuit switches and a plurality of electrical circuit switches. A first network stage comprises a first plurality of circuit switches selected from among the plurality of optical circuit switches and the plurality of electrical circuit switches. Each computing node among the plurality of computing nodes is optically coupled to at least one of the first plurality of circuit switches. A second network stage comprises a second plurality of circuit switches selected from among the plurality of optical circuit switches and the plurality of electrical circuit switches. Each circuit switch among the first plurality of circuit switches is optically coupled to each circuit switch among the second plurality of optical circuit switches.

Efficiently interconnecting a plurality of computing nodes to form a circuit-switched network

A system for using free-space optics to interconnect a plurality of computing nodes can include a plurality of node optical transceivers that are electrically coupled to at least some of the plurality of computing nodes. The system can also include a plurality of router optical transceivers that facilitate free-space optical communications with the plurality of node optical transceivers. Each node optical transceiver among the plurality of node optical transceivers can have a corresponding router optical transceiver that is optically coupled to the node optical transceiver. The system can also include a router that is coupled to the plurality of router optical transceivers. The router can be configured to route the free-space optical communications among the plurality of computing nodes.

Using free-space optics to interconnect a plurality of computing nodes

In various examples there is a communications network comprising a plurality of nodes connected via an interconnection medium to form a receive-from-many communications network. The network has a synchronisation mechanism which synchronizes a signal frequency of the nodes. The network has at least one store holding signal amplitude data of signals previously sent between specified pairs of nodes of the communications network. An amplitude controller uses the stored data to adjust amplitudes of signals communicated between at least one of the pairs of nodes of the communications network.

Amplitude caching in receive from many communications networks

An application programming interface (API) supporting server and key based networking is described. In an embodiment, the API receives either a key or a server address from a service running on a server in a direct-connect topology and returns data which identifies suitable next hops for transmission of a packet of data which has a destination of the received server address or of a server address which is encoded within the received key. In another embodiment, the key also encodes information specifying alternative server addresses for use in the event that the original server is unreachable. This information may also be used to define servers for replication of the key. A further embodiment describes a method of queuing packets for transmission against multiple links, where the packet is transmitted on the first available link and at this time is removed from the queues for the other links.

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Cambridge, United Kingdom

Paolo Costa