Scalable Wavelength Arbitration for Microring-based DWDM Transceivers

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of autonomous microring arbitration, or wavelength arbitration, to address the challenge of multi-microring initialization in microring-based Dense-Wavelength-Division-Multiplexed (DWDM) transceivers. This arbitration is inherently policy-driven, defining critical system characteristics such as the spectral ordering of microrings. Furthermore, to facilitate large-scale deployment, the arbitration algorithms must operate independently of specific wavelength information and be resilient to system variability. Addressing these complexities requires a holistic approach that encompasses the entire system, from device-level variabilities to the transceiver electrical-to-optical interface - this system-wide perspective is the focus of this paper. To support efficient analysis, we develop a hierarchical framework incorporating an ideal, wavelength-aware arbitration model to examine arbitration failures at both the policy and algorithmic levels. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated in two ways: by analyzing the robustness of each policy in relation to device variabilities, and by developing an algorithm that achieves near-perfect alignment with the ideal model, offering superior robustness compared to the traditional sequential tuning method. The simulator code used in this paper is available at https://github.com/wdmsim/wdm-simulator.