NVIDIA unveils Quantum-2 networking platform - a 400Gbps InfiniBand Switch

NVIDIA announced the next generation of its InfiniBand networking platform for cloud computing providers and supercomputing centers.

NVIDIA Quantum-2 is a 400Gbps InfiniBand networking platform that consists of the NVIDIA Quantum-2 switch, the ConnectX-7 network adapter, the BlueField-3 data processing unit (DPU) and all the software that supports the new architecture.

NVIDIA Quantum-2 includes key features required for demanding workloads running in either cloud enviroments or superomputing clusters. The multi-tenant performance isolation of NVIDIA Quantum-2 keeps the activity of one tenant from disturbing others, utilizing an advanced telemetry-based congestion control system with cloud-native capabilities that ensure reliable throughput, regardless of spikes in users or workload demands.

NVIDIA Quantum-2 SHARPv3 In-Network Computing technology provides 32x more acceleration engines for AI applications compared with the previous generation. Advanced InfiniBand fabric management for data centers, including predictive maintenance, is enabled with the NVIDIA UFM® Cyber-AI platform.

A nanosecond-precision timing system integrated into NVIDIA Quantum-2 can synchronize distributed applications, like database processing, helping to reduce the overhead of wait and idle times. This new capability allows cloud data centers to become part of the telecommunications network and host software-defined 5G radio services.

The Quantum-2 platform is powered by new Quantum-2 InfiniBand switching ASIC with 57 billion transistors implemented in 7-nanometer silicon. It features 64 ports at 400Gbps or 128 ports at 200Gbps and will be offered in a variety of switch systems up to 2,048 ports at 400Gbps or 4,096 ports at 200Gbps — more than 5x the switching capability over the previous generation, Quantum-1.

The NVIDIA Quantum-2 switch is now available from a wide range of leading infrastructure and system vendors around the world, including Atos, DataDirect Networks (DDN), Dell Technologies, Excelero, GIGABYTE, HPE, IBM, Inspur, Lenovo, NEC, Penguin Computing, QCT, Supermicro, VAST Data and WekaIO.

“The requirements of today’s supercomputing centers and public clouds are converging,” said Gilad Shainer, senior vice president of Networking at NVIDIA. “They must provide the greatest performance possible for next-generation HPC, AI and data analytics challenges, while also securely isolating workloads and responding to varying demands of user traffic. This vision of the modern data center is now real with NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand.”

https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-quantum-2-takes-supercomputing-to-new-heights-into-the-cloud

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Arista intros 400G Switches at OCP Summit

Arista Networks introduced its next generation of 7050X and 7060X Series switches optimized for 400G networks.

Introduced at OCP 2021, the all new Arista 7388X5 continues the modular system innovation from the 7368X4 and is compliant to the OCP Minipack2 specifications, doubling performance with 30% improved power efficiency. The Arista's 7388X5 shares Meta’s Minipack2 goals of a choice of form factor that supports high density 200G and 400G links. Arista offers a choice of operating systems with enhancements and supports additional use cases with operational efficiency benefits that simplify cloud network designs.

The Arista 7060X5 systems are the highest density 400G options for leaf-spine architectures, offering next-generation performance at the lowest power consumption and leverages the latest Broadcom 25.6Tbps silicon. With up to 64 ports of 400G in 2U, the 7060DX5-64S delivers 10.6Bpps that can be flexibly used in 100G, 200G and 400G environments.

“We are seeing customers of all sizes show interest in the next generation of 400G systems that provide incremental improvements without sacrificing backward compatibility. The Arista 7050X4 and 7358X4 are the latest in the long line of systems built around the Broadcom Trident chipsets that have delivered 20 times the performance increases over the last 10 years,” said Anshul Sadana, Chief Operating Officer at Arista Networks.

The 7050X4 Series 32 x 400G and 7358X4 Series 128 x 100G / 32 x 400G systems enable large enterprise and service provider customers to unlock the potential of 400G. 

Arista says the new systems provide a smooth evolution to higher performance without disruption to existing architectures and increase network capacity by 4 times over the previous generation. All parts of the 7358X4 are field replaceable, simplifying deployment and leveraging the same common equipment and modules as the Arista 7368X4 Series, accelerating the migration to 400G data center networks with up to 32 ports of 400G in 4RU with pay-as-you-grow flexibility.

The 7050X4 and 7358X4 feature:

• Enhanced network telemetry to detect and address congestion hotspots in real time
• Traffic management enhancements tuned for RoCE and NVMEoF workloads
• Support for 10G to 400G to ease the transition to higher performance compute

The new 7050X4 and 7358X4 are available in Q1 2022. The 7050X4 is available in a choice of two port configurations supporting 32 ports of 400G OSFP or QSFP-DD in 1RU. The 7358X4 modular system provides a choice of 25G, 100G and 400G ports.

Arista 7060X5 and 7388X5 doubles performance from the 7060X4 and 7368X4 in a choice of form factors:

• 64 x 400G in 2U fixed or 128 x 200G in 4U modular systems 
•  Increase network radix by a factor of 2 or allow the migration to 200G

The 7388X5 and 7060X5 will be available in 1H 2022, with customer testing currently in progress. Pricing starts at $1800 / 400G.

https://www.arista.com/en/company/news/press-release/13400-pr-20211109

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Meta deploys Cisco for Wedge400C Top of Rack (TOR) switch

At the tenth annual OCP Summit in San Jose, Cisco confirmed that Meta is deploying its Cisco Silicon One Q200L device along with the Wedge400C Top of Rack (TOR) switch. Cisco Q200L uses 7nm technology to provide a 12.8 Tbps solution for web scale switching and routing. The 12.8 Tbps Wedge400C supports up to 16 ports of 400G and 32 ports of 200G.

Meta worked with Cisco to develop and deploy two new next-generation TOR switches. The latest versions of Meta’s Wedge TOR, the Wedge 400 and 400C, offer higher front panel port density, and greater performance for AI and machine learning applications, while also enabling future expansions. The Wedge 400 and 400C have several improvements over the Wedge 100S, including 4x the switching capacity (upgraded from 3.2 Tbps to 12.8 Tbps), 8x the burst absorption performance, and a field-replaceable CPU subsystem.

“Cisco Silicon One is uniquely positioned in the industry to provide a common architecture across the entire network, enabling massive operational efficiencies for our customers,” said Rakesh Chopra, Cisco Fellow, Common Hardware Group Architecture and Platforming, Cisco. “The Q200L is an important part of Cisco’s expanding Silicon One product family and as part of our overall disagg component model, it provides Meta a building block to innovate on top of, at hyperscale efficiency and scale.”

https://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=2207937

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ADVA adapts its Oscilloquartz timing for Open Compute Time Appliance Project

ADVA launched its OSA 5400 TimeCard, enabling operators of data center network infrastructure and 5G open RAN architectures to achieve highly accurate and reliable distribution and synchronization of time. 

The new PCIe card, which is built on the OSA 5400 SyncModule, transforms an open compute server into a precise and stable PTP grandmaster, boundary clock, slave clock or NTP server. The OSA 5400 TimeCard is the market’s first solution developed to the framework of the Open Compute Project’s (OCP) Time Appliance Project (TAP) and enhanced with both PTP and NTP functions. With advanced synchronization capabilities, it solves a key challenge for network operators as they virtualize their infrastructure and replace purpose-built hardware with standard servers.

“Timing in data centers and other open compute cases like 5G open RAN is becoming increasingly crucial as a growing number of applications require new levels of performance. But the sub-microsecond synchronization needed for efficient resource sharing is something that open compute servers often cannot provide. Open compute customers need a way to inject the most advanced synchronization capabilities into their white box hardware. That’s why we’ve engineered our OSA 5400 TimeCard™. It brings our experience in network and application synchronization to open compute servers as well as open RAN equipment, enabling a whole new group of customers to benefit from our unique expertise,” said Gil Biran, general manager, Oscilloquartz, ADVA. 

https://www.adva.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/20211109-adva-timing-card-brings-precise-synchronization-to-open-compute-servers

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Digital Realty picks Ciena for cloud interconnectivity across Asia Pacific

Digital Realty selected Ciena to deliver an open, secure and dynamic cloud-based interconnectivity to customers across Asia Pacific. 

Digital Realty operates a network of industry-leading data centers in Asia Pacific, with locations in Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Melbourne, and Sydney. It is implementing Ciena’s 6500 Reconfigurable Line System, Waveserver Ai compact interconnect platform, and Manage, Control and Plan domain controller, enabling high capacity DCI and disaster recovery/backup between data centers.

Ciena said its DCI solution will allow Digital Realty’s customers to reach provider ecosystems beyond primary customer deployment, scale data center footprint and establish connectivity between deployments, and enable Digital Realty to be a one-stop shop for interconnectivity. Digital Realty’s customers will also have expanded data center options without compromising cloud and network connectivity needs by choosing facilities connected to premium Internet Gateways.

“Data gravity across Asia Pacific is reaching incredible new levels with increased digital workflows and massive bandwidth demands driven by 5G, gaming, digital entertainment and Internet of Things (IoT). Enhancing Digital Realty’s network with Ciena’s coherent optics enables us to not just sell space, power, and security management facilities but also bundle DCI capabilities for customers at the lowest operational cost,” says Robert Davidson, APAC Head of Network Strategy at Digital Realty.

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Former Broadcom engineer charged with stealing secrets

Peter Kisang Kim, a former Broadcom engineer, has been indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury on 18 charges of trade secret theft.

The indictment alleges that Kim worked as a principal design engineer at Broadcom in San Jose, California for over 20 years before departing the company for a start-up based in China. The indictment alleges that Kim stole Broadcom trade secrets from the company that were associated with a Broadcom family of chips often used in high-volume data centers, and that these trade secrets were stored in non-public document repositories that were restricted to Broadcom employees within the same suborganization, or to Broadcom employees working on a project. Kim is said to have accessed these files over a nine month period using a laptop issued by the new company.  These trade secrets were associated with test plans, design verification environment files, and design specifications for the Broadcom family of chips.  

Kim has entered a plea of not guilty to the charges.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-broadcom-engineer-charged-theft-trade-secrets

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Lightpath expands its fiber footprint across Boston region

Lightpath announced a 50-mile expansion of its all-fiber network in the Boston region, following the company's entrance into the market via multiple acquisitions in June. The additional 50 route miles of network brings the total route miles in the Boston metropolitan area to over 130.

The network expansion is focused on the five key areas of Boston, Waltham, Bedford, Burlington, and Lowell, MA, and is designed to enable access to additional, strategic data centers and business centers while at the same time providing options for service diversity and protection.

Specifically, Lightpath has added a second, diverse route between Boston and Lowell, while adding diversity and density in the Bedford, Burlington, and Waltham areas. Customers will benefit from access to critical area data centers at 55 Middlesex Turnpike, Bedford, MA and 115 2nd Avenue, Waltham, MA. Additionally, Lightpath is adding more network density in Boston to reach the Longwood Medical area, home to numerous hospitals, schools, and research facilities.

"These new network builds address multiple high opportunity markets and business centers, including two, highly-connected data centers in the heart of Boston Metro's Route 128 Tech Corridor," stated Chris Morley, Lightpath CEO. "The extensions in Boston, Bedford, Burlington, and Waltham increase Lightpath network addressability to over 1,200 new target organizations in the region."

http://www.lightpathfiber.com

Lightpath enters Boston market with acquisition of fiber routes

Thursday, June 17, 2021  Lightpath, NY/NJ  

Lightpath, which operates over 18,000 route miles of fiber in the New York metropolitan region, announced its entrance into the Boston market via the acquisition of three fiber networks.

Cambridge Network Solutions (CNS), a second area connectivity provider, and the purchase of fiber network assets from Hub Fiber. The CNS and the second acquisitions have closed, while the Hub Fiber purchase is expected to close within 30 days. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Together, the three propertiews represent 80 route miles of in-place, high-count fiber network reaching over 100 locations, including 12 area data centers, throughout Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Waltham, Burlington, Billerica, Bedford, and Lowell. Additionally, Lightpath's network in the region will be connected to its New York Metro network, expanding on the company's existing 18,000 route miles of fiber serving over 12,000 locations.

"Greater Boston is a perfect expansion area for Lightpath, with its robust technology and biotech industries, financial services sector, world leading universities and research institutes, tech-savvy governments, and other enterprise businesses," stated Chris Morley, Lightpath's CEO. "This is the first step for Lightpath expanding beyond the NY Metro region after reliably serving thousands of customers there for over 30 years. We are excited to bring our network, connectivity solutions, and innovative customer service approach to more organizations. These acquisitions will help us hit the ground running, and we will be able to start serving new customers right away."

Altice USA owns a 50.01% controlling interest in Lightpath and Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners (MSIP) owns 49.99% of the company.

https://lightpathfiber.com/

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