This article originally appeared in Light Reading
Microsoft is trying to check a wi-fi community inside an information middle that is situated close to the tech firm’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington.
In a current FCC filing, Microsoft mentioned it desires to “discover using wi-fi communications… to complement the wired communication hyperlinks in information facilities.”
When questioned in regards to the submitting by Mild Studying, Microsoft declined to supply any additional data. The corporate mentioned it will use gear from network-testing vendor Keysight Applied sciences for the assessments. The FCC authorized the corporate’s check request in January.
The Particulars
There are a number of attention-grabbing parts in Microsoft’s proposal, together with using spectrum within the 246GHz-275GHz vary. That extraordinarily highband spectrum has been pegged to be used in potential future 6G networks. Such spectrum could possibly carry huge quantities of knowledge, however broadcasts possible will not journey far because of the physics concerned in transmissions in highband spectrum.
Regardless, Microsoft believes this type of “sub THz” spectrum can be appropriate to be used inside information facilities.
“Sub THz hyperlinks have a number of options that make them enticing to be used in information facilities,” the corporate wrote in its FCC submitting. “First, extremely directional beams achieved by massive component antenna arrays enable coexistence of a number of communication hyperlinks by spatial multiplexing; the quick communication vary of sub THz beams attributable to excessive atmospheric attenuation enhances spatial reuse. The directional antenna arrays allow establishing and tearing down of RF hyperlinks on-demand. A big indoor working setting and the flexibility to boost the constructing partitions to attenuate RF propagation permits the institution of wide-bandwidth excessive information price hyperlinks with minimal interference to potential outside deployments, selling environment friendly spectrum sharing and coexistence.”
The corporate additionally talked about free-space optical (FSO) expertise in its submitting. FSO makes use of gentle propagating in free area – slightly than inside cables – to wirelessly transmit information.
FSO is not a brand new idea. The expertise was first developed within the Nineteen Sixties and several other FSO firms within the early 2000s tried to place the expertise as an excellent choice for backhaul again when 3G networks have been nonetheless being deployed. The subject has been revived within the 5G period.
Additional, Microsoft famous that FSO inside information facilities has been studied earlier than.
“Nonetheless, these optical hyperlinks exhibit poor efficiency in information facilities because of the problem of precisely pointing the optical beams within the presence of vibrations,” the corporate wrote. “We anticipate sub THz RF [radio frequency] is not going to endure from alignment points because of the comparatively massive and adjustable beam width. The power to electronically steer the RF beam quickly will even allow us to develop applicable management loops to additional mitigate challenges attributable to gear vibrations.”
A Starvation for Knowledge Facilities
Microsoft’s curiosity within the communications inside information facilities comes as no shock. The corporate’s capital bills within the last quarter of final 12 months reached $9.7 billion, a rise of 55% over the year-ago interval. That spike is partly attributable to its investments into the high-performance computing essential to run AI expertise inside its Azure cloud information facilities.
As Mild Studying has beforehand reported, these sorts of huge AI investments are additionally producing demand for brand spanking new communications applied sciences inside information facilities. On the coronary heart of the difficulty is a necessity to attach all of the GPUs (graphical processing items) that underpin the event of synthetic intelligence. Distributors like Corning and Coherent are eager to promote their communications parts to information middle operators beefing up communications inside their information middle operations.
“Following a torrid tempo of leasing in 2023, Microsoft continues to be probably the most energetic leaser of knowledge middle capability amongst the hyperscalers,” wrote the monetary analysts at TD Cowen in a current word to traders, evaluating Microsoft in opposition to different hyperscale firms like Amazon, Meta and Google. “Moreover, our checks point out that the motive force behind the [Microsoft’s] heavy information middle capex funding is its inside view that there’s a clear pathway to monetizing AI through the combination of AI into each its current product set and the launch of recent AI merchandise. This, coupled with its choice of an AI deployment structure forward of its hyperscale friends, has given Microsoft a notable head begin in securing [data center] capability vs. friends.”
Thus, it is potential {that a} renewed curiosity in extraordinarily highband spectrum, coupled with investments in FSO expertise, is driving Microsoft’s curiosity in its new information middle assessments. That curiosity may additionally create challenges for firms like Cisco, Corning, and Coherent that want to promote optical {hardware} for high-speed communications inside information facilities.