A datacenter interconnect (DCI) is a connection between data centers and between the components within them. [1] [2] The goal of a data center interconnect is to provide high bandwidth in order to maximize the utility of the data center. [2] Inter data center interconnects must also be able to transmit over long distances. [2] [3] By using specialized infrastructure such as optical communication and direct connection between datacenters, DCI is able to provide much higher bandwidths than typical networks. [2] This is valuable to large cloud computing companies. [4] In 2017, IEEE standards were created to support 400 GbE per wavelength optical communications. [2] [5] For short range connections within a data center, optical DCI can provide the advantage over traditional DCI of not needing cables. [6] [7]
A telecommunications network is a group of nodes interconnected by telecommunications links that are used to exchange messages between the nodes. The links may use a variety of technologies based on the methodologies of circuit switching, message switching, or packet switching, to pass messages and signals.
Free-space optical communication (FSO) is an optical communication technology that uses light propagating in free space to wirelessly transmit data for telecommunications or computer networking. "Free space" means air, outer space, vacuum, or something similar. This contrasts with using solids such as optical fiber cable.
HIPPI, short for High Performance Parallel Interface, is a computer bus for the attachment of high speed storage devices to supercomputers, in a point-to-point link. It was popular in the late 1980s and into the mid-to-late 1990s, but has since been replaced by ever-faster standard interfaces like Fibre Channel and 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
S/PDIF is a type of digital audio interface used in consumer audio equipment to output audio over relatively short distances. The signal is transmitted over either a coaxial cable using RCA or BNC connectors, or a fibre-optic cable using TOSLINK connectors. S/PDIF interconnects components in home theaters and other digital high-fidelity systems.
In telecommunication and data transmission, serial communication is the process of sending data one bit at a time, sequentially, over a communication channel or computer bus. This is in contrast to parallel communication, where several bits are sent as a whole, on a link with several parallel channels.
The vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser is a type of semiconductor laser diode with laser beam emission perpendicular from the top surface, contrary to conventional edge-emitting semiconductor lasers which emit from surfaces formed by cleaving the individual chip out of a wafer. VCSELs are used in various laser products, including computer mice, fiber optic communications, laser printers, Face ID, and smartglasses.
An optical neural network (ONN) is a physical implementation of an artificial neural network with optical components.
Multi-mode optical fiber is a type of optical fiber mostly used for communication over short distances, such as within a building or on a campus. Multi-mode links can be used for data rates up to 800 Gbit/s. Multi-mode fiber has a fairly large core diameter that enables multiple light modes to be propagated and limits the maximum length of a transmission link because of modal dispersion. The standard G.651.1 defines the most widely used forms of multi-mode optical fiber.
The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is a high-speed computer network serving United States Department of Energy (DOE) scientists and their collaborators worldwide. It is managed by staff at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
An optical link is a telecommunications link that consists of a single end-to-end optical circuit. A cable of optical fibers, possibly concatenated into a dark fiber link, is the simplest form of an optical link.
Silicon photonics is the study and application of photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium. The silicon is usually patterned with sub-micrometre precision, into microphotonic components. These operate in the infrared, most commonly at the 1.55 micrometre wavelength used by most fiber optic telecommunication systems. The silicon typically lies on top of a layer of silica in what is known as silicon on insulator (SOI).
Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of infrared or visible light through an optical fiber. The light is a form of carrier wave that is modulated to carry information. Fiber is preferred over electrical cabling when high bandwidth, long distance, or immunity to electromagnetic interference is required. This type of communication can transmit voice, video, and telemetry through local area networks or across long distances.
Networking cable is a piece of networking hardware used to connect one network device to other network devices or to connect two or more computers to share devices such as printers or scanners. Different types of network cables, such as coaxial cable, optical fiber cable, and twisted pair cables, are used depending on the network's topology, protocol, and size. The devices can be separated by a few meters or nearly unlimited distances.
IPtronics was a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. Its products include integrated circuits for parallel optical interconnect applications intended for the computer, storage and communication industries. IPtronics' design center is certified by STMicroelectronics, which is also their semiconductor foundry partner. In June 2013, IPtronics was acquired by Mellanox Technologies.
Terabit Ethernet (TbE) is Ethernet with speeds above 100 Gigabit Ethernet. The 400 Gigabit Ethernet and 200 Gigabit Ethernet standard developed by the IEEE P802.3bs Task Force using broadly similar technology to 100 Gigabit Ethernet was approved on December 6, 2017. On February 16, 2024 the 800 Gigabit Ethernet standard developed by the IEEE P802.3df Task Force was approved.
A data center is a pool of resources interconnected using a communication network. A data center network (DCN) holds a pivotal role in a data center, as it interconnects all of the data center resources together. DCNs need to be scalable and efficient to connect tens or even hundreds of thousands of servers to handle the growing demands of cloud computing. Today's data centers are constrained by the interconnection network.
NVLink is a wire-based serial multi-lane near-range communications link developed by Nvidia. Unlike PCI Express, a device can consist of multiple NVLinks, and devices use mesh networking to communicate instead of a central hub. The protocol was first announced in March 2014 and uses a proprietary high-speed signaling interconnect (NVHS).
DOME is a Dutch government-funded project between IBM and ASTRON in form of a public-private-partnership focussing on the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the world's largest planned radio telescope. SKA will be built in Australia and South Africa. The DOME project objective is technology roadmap development that applies both to SKA and IBM. The 5-year project was started in 2012 and is co-funded by the Dutch government and IBM Research in Zürich, Switzerland and ASTRON in the Netherlands. The project ended officially on 30 September 2017.
Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface (CAPI), is a high-speed processor expansion bus standard for use in large data center computers, initially designed to be layered on top of PCI Express, for directly connecting central processing units (CPUs) to external accelerators like graphics processing units (GPUs), ASICs, FPGAs or fast storage. It offers low latency, high speed, direct memory access connectivity between devices of different instruction set architectures.
An optical module is a typically hot-pluggable optical transceiver used in high-bandwidth data communications applications. Optical modules typically have an electrical interface on the side that connects to the inside of the system and an optical interface on the side that connects to the outside world through a fiber optic cable. The form factor and electrical interface are often specified by an interested group using a multi-source agreement (MSA). Optical modules can either plug into a front panel socket or an on-board socket. Sometimes the optical module is replaced by an electrical interface module that implements either an active or passive electrical connection to the outside world. A large industry supports the manufacturing and use of optical modules.