Memory and Network Architecture Interaction in an Optically Interconnected Distributed Shared Memory System

This paper develops a performance model of an optically interconnected parallel computer system operating in a distributed shared memory environment. The performance model is developed to reflect the impact of low level optical media access protocol and optical device switching latency on high level system performance. This enables the model to predict the performance impact of supporting distributed shared memory with different address allocation schemes and media access protocols. The passive star-coupled photonic network operates through wavelength division multiple access. Two media access protocols are examined for this WDM network, both are designed to operate in a multiple-channel multiple-access environment and require each node to possess a wavelength tunable transmitter and a fixed (or slow tunable) receiver. A semi-Markov model has been developed to study the interaction of the distributed shared memory architecture and the two access protocols of the photonic network. This analytical model has been validated by extensive simulation. The model is then used to examine the system performance with varying numbers of nodes and wavelength channels and varying, memory and channel access times.