# Mission Apollo: Landing Optical Circuit Switching at Datacenter Scale

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.10041 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.10041/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 22 Aug 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [TPU v4: An Optically Reconfigurable Supercomputer for Machine Learning with Hardware Support for Embeddings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.01433/) (2023)
- [Demystifying AI Platform Design for Distributed Inference of Next-Generation LLM models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.01698/) (2024)
- [Towards a future space-based, highly scalable AI infrastructure system design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.19468/) (2025)
- [OptINC: Optical In-Network-Computing for Scalable Distributed Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.28290/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In this paper, we describe Apollo, to the best of our knowledge, the world's first large-scale production deployment of optical circuit switches (OCSes) for datacenter networking. We will first describe the infrastructure challenges and use cases that motivated optical switching inside datacenters. We then delve into the requirements of OCSes for datacenter applications: balancing cost, port count, switching time, and optical performance, which drive design choices and implementation details of our internally developed 3D MEMS-based OCS. To enable the Apollo optical switching layer, we employ circulators to realize bidirectional links through the OCS, effectively doubling the OCS radix. The OCS and circulator design choices were critical for meeting network bandwidth, scale, and cost targets. We review the critical co-design of WDM transceiver technology for these OCS plus circulator-based bidirectional links and their corresponding physical impairments, delivered over four generations/speeds of optical interconnect. Finally, we conclude with thoughts on future directions in hardware development and associated applications.