In a data center very elaborated fast interconnects between all servers installed exist so they can communicate with each other. Growing traffic demands ever growing communication bandwidth.
The communication between the servers can be distinguished into short messages and long data transfer. Due to the way switches are built currently, even if the connection between the switches is via optical fibers, data flow inside the switch is electrically and involves also intermediate storing of the data. Thus long streams of data may occupy resources better used for short messages.
Goal of the Peta Cloud project is to define and design an overlay network to be used only for the long messages in the following called elephant flow. This second network will use all optical switches. Before an elephant flow is started the path between sender and receiver is established. It is also part of the project to evaluate and define how this path will be set up and broken down.