Remove the fog to see the future: When will the data center go 400Ge and 800GE?

Text/Huang Haifeng

The popularization of new applications such as AR/VR, Yuan Universe, the emergence of new industries such as smart factories and industrial Internet, the rise of new models such as remote medical, remote office, and the birth of new technologies such as 5G mobile technology and edge computing. Growing rapidly.

Data storage and processing all need to be performed in the data center. With the rapid development of emerging businesses, data centers have also changed. Market research institutions Researchandmarkets released "Global Data Center Custody Service Market Opportunity Report 2021-2025" shows that super large-scale data centers are expected to increase from 509 in 2019 to 2025 to 2025 890 years, with a compound annual growth rate of 9.76%.

According to data released by the China Institute of China, as of the end of 2021, my country has reached 5.2 million in the size of the data center rack, with a compound growth rate of more than 30%in the past 5 years. Among them, the scale of large data center racks is 4.2 million, accounting for 80%. In addition, the current development trend of high throughput of data centers is obvious.

In the face of opportunities, many people are confused. For example, the data center service provider and major enterprises, the internal exchange system of the data center network needs to be constructed, needs to speed up from 10GE, 40GE to 100GE, or 400Ge?

Next, the author will draw cocoons based on the new needs and characteristics of the industry, and reveal the future development direction of the data center.

Seeing Weizhi, I found that the data center moves forward in the future

With the digital transformation of various industries, the data center ushered in new opportunities and became the sea of ​​stars in the ICT industry. But many people do not know where the future development direction of the data center is. Whenever we can't see the direction of the road, we must review the changes in demand trends in the next three years and the next 10 years.

To distinguish the development direction of the data center, we also need to start with the latest network needs from industry applications. We noticed the following characteristics of the data center market.

Features 1, data center traffic grows at high speed. According to IDC forecasts, by 2025, data center traffic is expected to increase by more than 180 ZB. Service providers and major enterprises have urgently needed internal exchange systems of data center networks to speed up from 10GE, 40GE to 100GE and 400GE.

Feature two, in digital transformation, many applications put forward higher requirements for bandwidth. At present, corporate data centers are migrated to 25GE and 50GE server network cards; cloud data centers are migrated to 50GE and 100GE server network cards. It is reported that when the user bandwidth demand exceeds 100Gbps, the 400Gbps Ethernet will become the first choice of an enterprise. At this time, the internal data center of the enterprise needs to be connected by 400G+fiber.

Trend III, new application development, bringing new challenges. The new application is constantly landing and put forward new requirements for the size of the data center. For example, the evolution of traditional factories to intelligent factories brings more IoT devices to generate more connections. According to IOT Analytics prediction, by 2025, the number of global IoT devices will exceed 30 billion.

The development of high -definition nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, virtual remote medical care, and online banking will also put forward higher requirements for network bandwidth; 5G mobile technology, the rise of edge computing, and the development of virtualization and software definition of networks, then put forward the performance of data center performance Higher requirements.

Trend III, increasingly growing cloud demand. The development of home office, short videos, online transactions and other businesses promotes the cloud. According to Synergy Research Group's survey results, in the first quarter of 2020, data center hardware expenditure increased by 25%on the public cloud. This promotes the needs of cloud data centers for 400GE applications.

Trend 5, edge computing development. As the application requirements for delay are getting higher and higher, more and more companies have built edge data centers for data processing and analysis near the equipment and users. At this time, the edge data center also needs higher bandwidth calculations to process local data. This also promotes the industry's demand for 400G network speed.

Based on the above five trends, it is not difficult to find that the demand for 400GE data centers has gradually increased, meeting data center service providers and enterprises for many years, and can bring better investment income, so it has become the direction of industry development.

Starting towards 400GE, the industry is ready

The soldiers and horses did not move, and the grain and grass first. Is 400GE standards, technology, and solutions mature? Can you land quickly? In my opinion, we can understand the industry's preparations from the aspects of standards and network equipment.

If any industry technology wants to develop rapidly, it is inseparable from the unified industry standards. As early as 2013, the IEEE802 plenary meeting officially decided to establish a 400GE project, marking the official launch of the 400GB/S rate standardization; in 2017, IEEE 802.3BS is approved by the definition of Ethernet, including 400GE, which indicates that the 400GE standard is fully mature.

Many people are concerned about 800GE. We noticed that in April 2020, the Ethernet Technology Alliance formulated the 800GBase-R specification for 800G Ethernet, but IEEE has not yet set the 800GE Ethernet standard. ETC claims that the specifications use 400GBE standards to establish a 800GBE MAC (media access control) and PCS (physical coding subclase) specifications, and reduce users to achieve multi -rate costs on the Ethernet port. In terms of commercial network equipment, we found that with the efforts of Huawei and other equipment vendors, 400GE network devices are ready. Looking back at the 100GE period, before the establishment of the standard, the mainstream network manufacturers have launched a single -port 100GE single board, and operators have also deployed 100GE networks in advance. According to the prediction of third -party analysis agencies, the 400GE light module shipments forecast will increase at a high speed. From 2019 to 2023, the average annual growth rate of a compound annual growth rate will reach 158%.

The Chinese switch market forecast released by IDC China in 2021 predicts that in 2022-2026, a small number of 200GE and 400GE deployment in the industry in 2021 will not see 800GE deployment by 2026.

It can be seen that in the field of data centers, the development of 400GE at the time, the 800GE standard and the product have not yet matured, and there is still a way to go. In the next three years, the industry can maintain a 100GE/400GE deployment rhythm, rest assured to build, without considering 800GE. The 400G platform launched by some switch vendors can evolve to 800G in the future, such as the 16800 products released by Huawei in 2019. We recommend that we now choose products with the ability to evolve to 800G in the next 10 years.

From standard to product: Huawei pushes maturity 400GE, which can evolve to 800GE

Throughout the industry, Huawei's ICT innovation company has already embarked on the road of 400GE data center development, contributing to the maturity of the 400GE industry, and also created 400GE products suitable for current deployment and continuous evolution to the future. The reason why Huawei can do is Huawei's accumulation in technology and standards.

First of all, in terms of R & D, as early as 2011, Huawei organized the research on the research demand and technological development in the future, and the experience of high -speed Ether Port standard research, and organized a strong general to start the research on the basic technology of 400GE standard.

After that, Huawei R & D talents overcome the problems on the 400GE road all the way and achieved milestone development. In 2012, Huawei launched the research and development of high-speed transmission technology of 400GE physical layers; in 2016, the development of 400GE prototypes was completed; in 2017, the industry's first 400GE test was completed; in 2020, the NETENGINGINE 5000E-20 core router QSFP-DD 400GE was the world's first Business deployment.

Secondly, in terms of products, Huawei adheres to inheritance and innovation, protecting existing investment also meets future needs. The Huawei Cloudengine series data center switch, which has maintained the number one in the Chinese market for six consecutive years, has the industry's highest secret 400GE data center frame switch Cloudengine 16800: A set of architecture to achieve 10G, 25G, 40G, 100G and 400G five -generation platforms to meet the future of 10 The year is smooth.

The Huawei data center box switch in this series CloudEngine 8851 can support 400GE forward forwarding, support port adaptation, downward 10GE/25GE/50GE, uplink 100GE/200GE/400GE upgrade, one pipe three generations.

In terms of product performance, Cloudengine data center storage network switch can improve the IOPS performance by 93%compared to traditional products.

It is reported that Huawei Cloudengine16800, 8800, and 6800 series data center switches have obtained the CC (universal standard) certification EAL4+Certificate through the global first independent authentication agency European SGS BrightSight laboratory security assessment. , Certified switch products through this level.

Finally, in terms of standards, Huawei continues to make efforts to lead the industry's technological innovation direction. It is reported that in the process of promoting the maturity of the 400GE standard, Huawei submits more than 170 technical drafts and undertakes the chairman of the 802.3BS 200/400Ge 2/10km Standard Working Group and the Editorial Edit of Light Layer Standard, 802.3BN 50/200/400GE 40KM Standard Working Group Chairman Chairman And editor -in -chief position.

I observe: 400GE is here, the industry can move the camera

Looking back at the development of human science and technology, every new technology from proposed to landing is accompanied by huge challenges. The industry needs to be far -sighted, grasp the direction of demand through fog, and then continue to explore on the road to conquer each difficult and dangerous obstruction. This is also the case for innovation evolution in the data center.

From the above analysis, it can be seen that the future development direction of the data center has been clear, and the demand and technology are evolving towards 400GE; the industry has also prepared for standards, development planning, and network equipment.It can be said that with the active deployment of leading companies, the journey of data centers to 400GE has begun.Data center service providers, operators, and enterprises in various industries can even consider from 100GE to 400GE.Today, the state attaches great importance to the construction of advanced data center infrastructure and exerts the "East Calculation" project.At this time, the industry needs a founder and leader to build a reliable 400G data center base for the enterprise and land on the national policy.The author believes that Huawei has long been prepared in all aspects and is a reliable partner who will lead the data center industry into the 400GE era with all parties.

- END -