Software-enable energy-efficient hardware infrastructure for next-generation data centres

拟议的为期3年的项目战略性地解决了与扩展数据中心以支持云计算和物联网（IoT）出现的迫切需求相关的挑战，物联网的出现导致了存储和传输数据的指数级增长。数据中心的硬件基础设施变得越来越昂贵和耗电，要求行业寻找实用的扩展解决方案。实际上，数据中心在分布在通常超过10,000平方米的区域内的机架上的数万台服务器之间进行点对点互连。目前使用的是光纤互连，数据传输速度为10gb /s，很快将向25gb /s发展。然而，数据需求正在推动IEEE快速定义和采用当前OFI无法满足的更高比特率的标准，并且必须紧急开发适当解决成本，功率和空间问题。两名研究人员正在整合他们在光子学和电子学方面的专业知识，以战略性地满足对支持物联网的基础设施解决方案的需求。他们正在与来自数据中心硬件供应链的三家加拿大行业合作伙伴合作。英特是一家高速光电设计公司，在III-V。Reflex Photonics是一家收发器制造商。华为加拿大公司正在开发和建设下一代数据中心。McGill大学的Odile Liboiron-Ladouceur教授和Concordia大学的Glenn Cowan教授是两位充满活力的新任命副教授，他们将为加拿大工业培养11名具有宝贵技能的学生。该项目也是合作伙伴的重中之重，使他们能够进一步在市场上建立自己的地位

The proposed 3-year project strategically addresses the challenges related to the urgent need for scaling data centres to support cloud computing and the emergence of Internet-of-Things (IoT) which are giving rise to an exponential growth in data to be stored and transmitted. The hardware infrastructure in data centres is becoming costly and power hungry, requiring industry to look for practical scaling solutions. Indeed, data centres have point-to-point interconnections between tens of thousands of servers in racks spread across an area that is often more than 10,000 meter square. Optical fiber interconnection (OFI) is currently used with data transmission at 10 Gb/s soon moving to 25 Gb/s. However, the data demand is pushing the IEEE to quickly define and adopt standards at higher bit rates that current OFI does not meet and must urgently be developed properly addressing cost, power, and space. Two investigators are merging their expertise in photonics and electronics to strategically target the need for an infrastructure solution to support IoT. They are teaming up with three Canadian industry partners from the hardware supply chain for data centres. Intengent is a design house of high-speed optoelectronics in III-V. Reflex Photonics is a transceiver manufacturer. Huawei Canada is developing and building next-generation data centres. The co-PIs, Prof. Odile Liboiron-Ladouceur from McGill University and Prof. Glenn Cowan from Concordia University, are dynamic, newly appointed associate professors who will train a total of 11 students with invaluable skills to the benefit of Canadian industry. The project is also a top priority for the partners, enabling them to further establish themselves in the market.**