Novelties: A Wireless Way Around Data Center Traffic Jams

The New York Times (Jan 14 2012)

1. THE vast data centers that process information for the Facebooks and Amazons of the Web work at a brisk clip. But even so, they can’t always keep up. Add to Portfolio Microsoft Corporation Go to your Portfolio » Enlarge This Image Microsoft At Microsoft Research in Redmond, Wash., 60 GHz wireless links are atop server racks. The links are intended to speed data flow at crunch times. During sudden bursts of activity, bottlenecks occur as traffic moves among dense clusters of servers. Typically, the servers are stacked one on top of another in rack after rack — and are connected by switches, routers and cables. To better handle the congestion, researchers are testing a shortcut that doesn’t involve costly rewiring. They are experimenting with wireless links, mounted atop the server racks, to supply extra bandwidth for moving data along at crunch times. Researchers in the field, as well as data ... (Read Full Article)

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