Chen, Yuhua2020-01-032020-01-03December 22014-12December 2https://hdl.handle.net/10657/5678This thesis describes a hybrid optical/electronic network architecture that overcomes the limitations of using only modified commodity hardware in such networks, and is easy for industry to adopt. Test results show significant performance improvements when the proposed system is added to a highly oversubscribed electronic network and good performance with no detrimental effects when the system is added to a traditional electronic network that is not oversubscribed. This allows for greater oversubscription ratios in the electronic network and therefore cheaper and less complex hardware. The primary contributions of this work include a method of seamlessly integrating optical switching into an existing network using custom hardware, a research platform that allows greater flexibility in the analysis of hybrid optical/electronic networks, and a software platform for simulating such networks.application/pdfengThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).Computer NetworkingOptical networksHybrid NetworksData centers2020-01-03Thesisborn digital