Can Data Centers exist without switches? That is what Microsoft researchers are exploring to find out. With CamCube, Microsoft Research is looking exploring a new way to connect servers directly to other servers, without the use of any switches or dedicated networking inside a datacenter container.
CamCube
The operation instead is to use “low-level link orientated API” (application programming interface) that allows services to implement their own protocols. Some of the ideas involved are a virtual-machine distribution service, a caching service, an aggregation service, and more.
Camcube- Current- Status
The CamCube project explores the design of a shipping container sized data center with the goal of building an easier platform on which to build these applications. CamCube replaces the traditional switch-based network with a 3D torus topology, (Topologically, a torus is a closed surface defined as the product of two circles: S1 × S1) with each server directly connected to six other servers.
Current data centers, as well as proposals for future ones, use a single routing protocol to route packets between arbitrary servers. CamCube also has a base of multi-hop routing service, where it uses a link-state routing protocol that routes packets on shortest paths and exploits, where possible.
Torus_cycles
The ultimate goal of CamCube is to increase networking performance in increasingly large datacenters that Microsoft, its partners and its customers are building. By changing the internal workings of the communication link between servers using the torus topology and a directly connected interface, bypassing the switch, faster performance can be expected.
Whether this technology ever comes to fruition only Microsoft knows. But it is interesting that with all of the changes that are taking place at the software level for Microsoft, they are engaging in product design which affects hardware operations directly. Datacenters are expected to get larger and larger since so many software elements are now computerized.
Source: Zdnet
