800G Solutions for Data Centers: Creating and Testing New Industry Standards
When vehicles are constantly in gridlock, we must add more lanes to busy highways to improve traffic flow. The same scenario is true for the data center industry. Under pressure from rapidly increasing AI traffic, data center operators and hyperscalers are building 800G solutions.
A “Powerful” Problem for AI Data Centers
Power consumption is a growing challenge in AI data centers. According to IDC, the energy consumption of AI data centers will reach 146.2 TWh by 2027.
In addition, across society, both consumers and businesses are demanding massive amounts of data at rapid speeds. Several popular technology trends are contributing to the data surge toward 800G capacity:
- 5G, the fifth generation of cellular networks
- IoT, the internet of things
- Cloud computing
These prevalent technologies create a perfect storm of increased data flow that creates bandwidth demand for data storage and transfer. According to the United States Department of Energy (DOE), data centers consume 10 to 50 times the energy per floor space of a typical office building. They consume 2% of the country's electricity use, and DOE experts expect this number to grow as demand escalates in the digital age.
Furthermore, the growing racks of servers must be cooled, or they will crash. According to a Time magazine article, cooling requires billions of gallons of water yearly and creates a large business and community resource demand requiring careful planning and community relations. Today's common data center infrastructure is not designed to handle the high demand for bandwidth that AI, 5G, IoT, and cloud computing generate. We need more efficient solutions to accommodate the increased traffic flow. Data center innovators must develop future tools and solutions with this in mind.
800G for AI Data Center Connectivity
It is time to expand the highway. The next generation of ethernet infrastructure addresses power consumption issues while increasing connectivity and reducing latency. AI/ML applications and next-gen workloads are driving network traffic to unprecedented levels, making the transition to 800G essential. Meanwhile, researchers are even beginning to explore 1.6T solutions simultaneously.
Evolving Test Standards for 800G Solutions
Developing and testing new technology go hand in hand. As technology pioneers build the next generation of data centers, standards bodies are hard to work on the next industry requirements.
At Keysight, we partner with industry leaders to determine how to test this emerging technology and develop new technology standards. We are helping innovators and early adopters prepare for the future by creating testing solutions to validate and debug 800G solutions.
In 2021, Keysight introduced 800G test solutions that support multimode interfaces, enabling the optical transceiver ecosystem to improve the power efficiency of components and modules used in data center equipment. Then, in 2022, we announced the industry's first compliance test solution for validating 112 gigabits per second (Gbps) serial data center interface to the latest industry standards. This new test solution leverages Keysight's M8040A 64 GBaud high-performance bit error ratio tester (BERT) with an N1060A Digital Communication Analyzer (DCA) for receiver testing and Keysight's Infinium UXR-Series real-time oscilloscope for transmitter testing. 800G standards, like the IEEE 802.3ck and the OIF‑CEI‑112Gelectrical standards, continue to evolve. We continually update Keysight’s test solutions to track the standard’s development. Our solutions help you validate new test methods and specifications before the standard is complete. Adoption of this innovative technology depends on standardization and rigorous testing. We are here to support industry trailblazers as they create 800G solutions (and beyond) for power-efficient data centers in the future.