Looking at data center cabling for the future

In the field of integrated wiring, data center cabling will play an increasingly important role. On the one hand, the scale of the market continues to expand, on the other hand, in the first application of new technologies and new products. According to FTM consulting firm forecasts, 2011 Global Data Center Wiring market will reach 2http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/36848.html ">2.3 billion dollar scale, accounting for 30.8% of the global wiring market." The Global Industrial Analysis Company (GIA) data on structured cabling systems shows that the global cabling market will exceed 8.2 billion dollars in 2015. This shows that the data center wiring has become the entire wiring industry's new business growth.

When the scale of the market is no longer disputed, it becomes the focus of discussion on which technology is used to build or upgrade the data center. This issue has also been discussed recently by the "2011 Data Center Network and Wiring Summit forum and the 2011 China integrated wiring Top ten brand release" by the China Engineering Construction Standardization Association's Information and Communication Professional Committee (CECS) integrated wiring Working Group and Data Center Working Group.

What kind of cable is the right choice?

As a 10G network, even higher speed 40/100g network support, wiring also need to upgrade. But what kind of copper and fiber should they choose? Now the popular copper cable is divided into 6 a class, 7 class, 7 A class, optical fiber also has OM3 and OM4 as an optional object. How should users choose?

"Users need to choose cabling according to their network architecture and network equipment, and there is no pat." However, if copper is selected, 6 A is recommended, and optical fiber is recommended to use OM4. This is also the proposal of TIA942-A standard draft. "The advice given by Wu Jian, technical director of the US-China enterprise solution, is very pertinent.

In the white Paper on the engineering design, construction and inspection technology of Wu Jian as the technical director of the project, the million-gigabit copper cable is focused on the 6 type a cable. On the features, 6 a cable can support 500MHz, the longest channel can reach 100 meters, can support the application of 4 connections, and support the 10gbase-t interface standard. However, the "external crosstalk" test for 6 Type a cable is a link that requires the user's attention. For the data center copper Link level test, US Fluke Technology manager Ying Gang has recommended the use of the "permanent link test + jumper test" approach.

In solving the problem of "crosstalk between lines", the managing director of Dettwiller Cable (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Paixiaoping that the shielding wiring is quite advantageous. In addition, he also explicitly recommended users to use based on 7 or 7-A-class cable as a solution, which takes into account the "anti-jamming performance requirements, information security and bandwidth margin." "But to the shielding wiring itself interference measurement also need to enter the scope of user assessment."

And the selection of copper cable is the same, optical fiber will also have a selective problem. Single-mode or Multimode? OM3 or OM4?

Clearly, the release of the 40/100g network standard is a shot of the tonic for the fiber. "Multimode OM3 and OM4 will become mainstream applications in the future, and Mtp/mpo will be further developed." Sun Huiyong, the product technology director of the Asia Pacific Electronics Co., Ltd., gave this judgment. This is mainly from the cost of consideration, in the 40G network, Single-mode fiber wiring cost less than multimode fiber, but optical electronic devices are higher than multimode, and from the overall cost, multimode is often better than single-mode. This advantage is particularly evident in 100G networks. In addition, in terms of Mtp/mpo, OM3 support for 40/100g is 100 meters, while OM4 can reach 150 meters. "In terms of fiber, we recommend more users to use Multimode, if you want to use Single-mode fiber, we recommend that users choose 0 water peaks." Wu Jian said.

Energy Saving and intelligence

Different from the choice of product diversification, energy-saving and intelligent demand is more consistent. In terms of energy efficiency, power and refrigeration costs have 44%~50% the total cost of ownership of the data center. "Green data centers start with a green infrastructure, and a truly green datacenter needs to be considered: cabling system lifecycle, energy and thermal management, and saving materials." Simon Peng Hao, a manager of the Great China region of the United States, concludes. In the new energy-saving data center, the blocking and isolating of the cold channel and the Heat channel are the most popularized technology at present. In addition, "we launched the white cabinet reflective energy-saving, chimney-type hot gas export plus channel closure technology can help users build pue=1.3 data center." Liu Ningjun, general manager of the United States Pan-da Company in China, said proudly.

Intelligent wiring refers to the physical layer cabling system connectivity and active equipment movement, increase and change to achieve real-time accurate, visual supervision. This is now in the data Center network scale is increasing, the level of network security rising and intelligent wiring and common wiring costs shrinking today to see a very large market. According to Bsria's data, the number of globally installed intelligent cabling system ports has grown from 1 million in 2005 to around 4 million today. What are the characteristics of intelligent wiring in the future? TE Company General Cabling system China sales director Gao said that "new monitoring forms, intelligent monitoring to support the 40/100g fiber MPO interface, and a connection to the terminal device via a chip-enabled workspace module will appear successively." ”

The reliability of the physical layer is an important foundation of the whole IT system, so the cabling system is more demanding than other network facilities. Reasonable foresight and performance requirements can be the key to support the network development in the next 10-15 years.

(Responsible editor: Lu Guang)