"Battle for a place": Scientists hope to reduce the number of wires in the data center
At the Photonics West 2017 exhibition in San Francisco, held on January 31, scientists from the University of Pennsylvania presented the Firefly technology. This is a photon coupling system (FSO) that implements inter-shelf links at a speed of 10 Gbit / s.
Data centers can have up to 400 thousand servers on racks that can fill a room and a half kilometers in length. The number of wires in such an environment is large. Scientists want to solve this problem with Firefly.
/ Flickr / Andrew Adams / CC
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It is worth noting that scientists tried to use radio frequencies as a wireless solution, however, after experiments conducted by Microsoft engineers, this idea had to be abandoned. The radio waves affected each other too much, thus limiting the system bandwidth and the number of active links.
"Therefore, we switched to the so-called optical communication lines," said Mohsen Kavehrad, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “Our system uses very cheap lenses, and we get a narrow infrared beam capable of transmitting information with zero noise and high speed.”
Based on the Firefly architecture, scientists have created a conceptual system that has demonstrated the ability to send multiplexed data over a 10 Gbit / s laser beam in one direction.
The data stream enters the fiber optic cable, then “travels” with the help of a laser to another part of the room, where the receiver displays the received information on the monitor. A hand placed in the path of the beam obviously disrupts the transmission process, but if you remove it, the broadcast will resume quickly.
But scientists say that signal interruption will not be a problem. "Since the system will be placed at the top of the racks, the infrared rays that provide the connection will not be interrupted by passing system administrators and data center employees," - as stated in the announcement of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania.
FSO technology itself is not a novelty, but scientists have made several modifications, in particular, created a tool that automates the process of establishing communication between the receiver and transmitter.
Firefly contains microelectromechanical systems with tiny mirrors for quick setup and reconfiguration of connections. Moreover, the displacement of the mirrors is so small that it is almost imperceptible when the reflector changes its position. They are controlled by a specially designed program that quickly locates the receiver and precisely hits the beam on the target. Thanks to this system, you can quickly redirect the laser to another receiver.
To launch the full-featured version of Firefly, scientists have only two obstacles to overcome: to solve the problem of seamless signal transmission to the fiber optic cable after it enters the receiver, as well as the task of managing the data distribution system in a wireless environment.
“Perhaps in the future we will be able to abandon the fiber for good,” says Kavehrad.
PS A few more materials from the blog VAS Experts:
Data centers can have up to 400 thousand servers on racks that can fill a room and a half kilometers in length. The number of wires in such an environment is large. Scientists want to solve this problem with Firefly.
/ Flickr / Andrew Adams / CC')
It is worth noting that scientists tried to use radio frequencies as a wireless solution, however, after experiments conducted by Microsoft engineers, this idea had to be abandoned. The radio waves affected each other too much, thus limiting the system bandwidth and the number of active links.
"Therefore, we switched to the so-called optical communication lines," said Mohsen Kavehrad, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “Our system uses very cheap lenses, and we get a narrow infrared beam capable of transmitting information with zero noise and high speed.”
Based on the Firefly architecture, scientists have created a conceptual system that has demonstrated the ability to send multiplexed data over a 10 Gbit / s laser beam in one direction.
The data stream enters the fiber optic cable, then “travels” with the help of a laser to another part of the room, where the receiver displays the received information on the monitor. A hand placed in the path of the beam obviously disrupts the transmission process, but if you remove it, the broadcast will resume quickly.
But scientists say that signal interruption will not be a problem. "Since the system will be placed at the top of the racks, the infrared rays that provide the connection will not be interrupted by passing system administrators and data center employees," - as stated in the announcement of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania.
FSO technology itself is not a novelty, but scientists have made several modifications, in particular, created a tool that automates the process of establishing communication between the receiver and transmitter.
Firefly contains microelectromechanical systems with tiny mirrors for quick setup and reconfiguration of connections. Moreover, the displacement of the mirrors is so small that it is almost imperceptible when the reflector changes its position. They are controlled by a specially designed program that quickly locates the receiver and precisely hits the beam on the target. Thanks to this system, you can quickly redirect the laser to another receiver.
To launch the full-featured version of Firefly, scientists have only two obstacles to overcome: to solve the problem of seamless signal transmission to the fiber optic cable after it enters the receiver, as well as the task of managing the data distribution system in a wireless environment.
“Perhaps in the future we will be able to abandon the fiber for good,” says Kavehrad.
PS A few more materials from the blog VAS Experts:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/319638/
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