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Atlanta Chapter

March 22, 2001
Meeting Abstract

Optical Multistage Interconnection Networks
New Challenges and Approaches

Abstract

Fiber optic communication offers a combination of high speed, low error probability, and gigabit transmission capacity. It has been extensively used in wide-area networks and has received much attention in distributed processing community as well. A basic element of optical switching networks is a directional coupler with two inputs and two outputs (also referred to as switching elements). Depending on the control voltage applied to it, an input optical signal is coupled to either of the two outputs, setting the switching element to either the "straight" or the "cross" state. A class of topologies that can be used to construct optical networks is multistage interconnection networks (MINs), which interconnect their inputs and outputs via several stages of switching elements. Although optical MINs hold great promises and have demonstrated advantages over their electronic counterparts, they also introduce new challenges and problems. Due to these new problems, traditional routing algorithms and results for electronic MINs cannot be applied directly to optical MINs. In this talk, we will identify the problems encountered, propose possible approaches to the problems, and report some new results on optical multistage interconnection networks. In particular, permutation capability, routing schemes and performance of optical banyan and Benes networks will be studied.

Biography

Yi Pan received his B.Eng. degree in computer engineering from Tsinghua University, China, in 1982, and his Ph.D. degree in computer science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1991. Currently, he is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at Georgia State University. Previously, he was a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Dayton. His research interests include parallel algorithms and architectures, optical communication and computing, wireless networks, high performance data mining, distributed computing, task scheduling, and networking. He has published more than 110 research papers including over 46 papers in international journals such as IEEE Transactions on Computers, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on Reliability, IEEE Communications Magazine, IEEE Computing in Science and Engineering, Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, Optical Engineering, and Journal of Supercomputing. He has received many awards including the Outstanding Scholarship Award of the College of Arts and Sciences at University of Dayton (1999), a Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship (1998), an AFOSR Summer Faculty Fellowship (1997), NSF Research Opportunity Awards (1994 and 1996), and the best paper award from PDPTA '96 (1996). His research has been supported by the NSF, the AFOSR, the U.S. Air Force, and the state of Ohio.

Dr. Pan is currently an area editor-in-chief of the Journal of Information, an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics , an editor of the Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing Practices, an associate editor of the International Journal of Parallel and Distributed Systems and Networks, and on the editorial board of The Journal of Supercomputing. He has served as a guest editor of special issues for several journals. He has also served as general chair, program chair, vice program chair, publicity chair, session chair, steering committee, advisory committee, or program committee member for numerous international conferences and workshops.

Dr. Pan is an IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Visitor, a senior member of IEEE and a member of the IEEE Computer Society. He is listed in Men of Achievement and Marquis Who's Who in the Midwest.

Meeting Location and Time

March 22, 2001 at 7:00 p.m.
Bell South Tower in midtown Atlanta
(near Crawford Long Hospital, the North Avenue Marta station and the Renaissance Hotel)

Lowell E. Reed
(770) 798-4940