Physical layer infrastructure: Hyperscale and cloud-scale

A need for increased capacity and responsiveness is driving a rapid migration to higher speed data rates, fuelling change in the physical layer infrastructure for hyperscale and global-scale data centres. That’s why we’ve developed Propel — an end-to-end, highspeed, modular fiber platform that we believe best addresses the current and future needs of larger data center networks. CommScope Solutions Architect, Ken Hall, talks us through the changes and what the future holds.

Q: What are the key drivers fueling the changes in the data center physical layer infrastructure of hyperscale and cloud-scale providers?

A: There’s been a rapid migration to higher speed data rates over the past several years, mainly due to the need to increase capacity and responsiveness in data centers. Data center managers are looking to take advantage of faster, higher capacity switches. To do that, they need to provision more ports at higher data rates and higher optical lane counts per port. Among other things, this requires thoughtful scaling with more flexible deployment options.

Simplifying and supporting the required design, installation, operations and migration paths means infrastructure and network teams must collaborate to ensure the cabling architectures align with the network configurations.

What we’ve found with our hyperscale and global-scale clients is that they need the right building blocks to enable a flatter network—one that delivers much better performance and redundancy. The evolution from four-lane quad designs to eight-lane octal has enabled the migration to 400G, 800G and eventually 1.6T and beyond. The 16-fiber configuration that supports octal technology is the primary building block.

This, in turn, is driving changes in network topologies. How do you distribute all that capacity most efficiently, switch to switch and switch to server? We know that the trend is to flatten the network by reducing switch layers where possible.

But each use case is different; therefore, a high degree of flexibility is necessary. That means providing the greatest range of breakout options and interfaces possible. Not only the 16-fiber building block, but 2-, 8-, 12- and 24-fiber configurations that support legacy applications. These are just some of the many changes that are helping to reshape the requirements and designs of today’s hyperscale and cloud-scale data center networks. We designed the Propel™ platform to help our customers meet those challenges more easily, efficiently and gracefully.

Q: So, how would you describe Propel?

A: Propel is an end-to-end, high-speed, modular fiber platform that, we believe, best addresses the current and future needs of today’s larger, high-fiber count data center networks. It is built on three pillars:

1. Design flexibility — it’s the first global fibre platform to incorporate 16-fibre MPO technology.
2. Ultra-low loss performance — as networks flatten and links spans increase, ULL optical performance is critical for delivering high speed transmissions.
3. Efficient Day 1/Day 2 operations — enables data center managers to deploy, upgrade and manage their fiber network faster and easier than current solutions.

Q: What are the key differentiators between Propel and the other fiber platforms?

A: There are a few. Certainly, the 16-fiber support is unique and ahead of the market. The platform is also application-specific so customers can easily tailor their networks to the changing demands within their data centers. That’s important as network teams and infrastructure teams become more collaborative. Then there are the interchangeable modules that enable you to reconfigure channels quickly and easily, whether you need four duplex ports for an 8-fiber application, eight for 16, six for 12, or 12 for 24. You can do that inside the panel without any field modification and without switching out panels.

For the full interview, including a deep dive into ULL performance and 16-fibre MPO connectivity, as well as Hall’s thoughts on deployment and management of Propel, download the article pdf here.

Image credit: iStockphoto.com/gorodenkoff