Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) are working on a technique that could accelerate data center traffic by as much as 30 percent, compared to using traditional cables. Their approach, called 3D beamforming, is to send short bursts of traffic directly between the servers that need the information--avoiding competition with other servers and applications--and to do so at top speeds. Congestion associated with short bursts of activity is the reason why data center traffic gets tied up at key points during the day. Using mostly off-the-shelf gear, the team set up a system that creates and transmits 60 GHz Wi-Fi beams. The design bounces data over server racks, off metal plates on the ceiling, to specially designed antennas on each server. And the method saves bandwidth because the wireless links can be turned off and on as needed. "The next step is to develop network protocols and management techniques" to ensure those connections can be established, broken, and remade at will, says UCSB's Heather Zheng. "We are currently working on these." Zheng expects this phase of the project to take a couple of years.

From "Going Wireless in the Data Center"
Computerworld (05/07/12) Johanna Ambrosio
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