Author
Ken Hall, RCDD NTS
While the new and improved AI platforms are in the purview of the chip manufacturers, many of the solutions delivering faster go-live times are found in the infrastructure that connects AI resources, and that’s where CommScope focuses our energies—because the old axiom has never been more true: time really is money.
Cascading challenges
New and upgraded deployment project schedules that once required years to implement are being squeezed to months or weeks—even as network complexity and fiber density of those deployments goes through the roof. The sheer amount of fiber required for the latest AI architecture is outgrowing the space available to reliably install, store and manage it. This, can cause unacceptable delays. Combined with trained labor shortages, installation errors from dressing densely populated cables across cabinets in a pod and connecting devices with additional obstacles from new cooling challenges must be resolved before turn-up.
So, with all these complications, how can AI data centers speed up complex deployments and bring their best offerings to market before the competition does?
Constant evolution needs constant innovation
Successful AI deployments are built to scale, because the evolution of hardware and infrastructure never really ends. To facilitate graceful evolutionary scaling, infrastructure must provide a modular, logical and scalable approach, from pre-measured, factory-labeled and performance documented structured cabling to innovative rack and cabinet designs which enable better space management for cooling infrastructure and reliable access for installation and maintenance.
For example, within spine-leaf switch and management cabinets, high fiber count array assemblies, color-coded with numbered labels can simplify and speed up onsite installation, such as those pictured below.
To save time onsite, these assemblies—along with the required network equipment—can be pre-installed in a cabinet offsite by a value-add partner, tested, commissioned and packaged for delivery. Processes that can be completed off-site or off the data center floor can save time and improve site efficiency. Offsite or off data center floor preparation can reduce effort expended by simply dropping trunk cables from overhead into the top of the rolled-in cabinets and connecting to the modules at the top of rack fiber panel.
Manufacturer logistics matter
These time-saving solutions are impressive, but they won’t help speed up your deployment if the manufacturer lacks the capacity or global logistics to deliver them where needed in the volumes required by AI data centers.
CommScope is a trusted partner to data centers of all kinds, all over the world, and our global (and growing) fiber solutions manufacturing footprint is an important reason why. When it comes to shrinking deployment cycles, the choice of solutions partner extends beyond the technology—it also includes capacity to deliver on time—and at scale.
CommScope® solutions deliver today and scale tomorrow
CommScope builds solutions to address operator challenges across all phases of their businesses, from the technological to the logistical to the financial. For instance, to deliver cutting-edge performance and speed up deployments at the same time, CommScope offers custom cabling infrastructure services that supplies preterminated, color-coded and labeled meshed cable assemblies. These customer-specified fiber cabling solutions reduce the likelihood of installation error as well as the need for jacket cutting or other modifications, making them an effective way to prevent performance degradation as well as speeding up installation.
CommScope also offers shuffle modules through our Propel® high-speed fiber solutions portfolio that makes it simple for data centers to implement bandwidth-expanding shuffle architecture with a simple, uniform solution that reduces complexity. Options provide resiliency via multi-path and multi-plane architecture.
Lastly, CommScope’s Rapid Fiber Connect™ rack-scale solution provides an innovative, streamlined way to manage connectivity. Optimized for AI ultra-dense applications and built to facilitate offsite or off-floor integration and fast scale-out deployments, its plug-and-play simplicity reduces configuration time and connection errors and makes roll-in and turn-up a matter of minutes instead of hours or days. The Rapid Fiber Connect solution accepts 96-fiber Mass Insertion trunk connectors, allowing rack-to-rack connectivity with 12 times fewer clicks than required by MPO12/8 connectors. Trunk cables can also be deployed onsite prior to roll-in for even faster deployments.
Time is money. CommScope understands the importance of rapid deployments as data centers scale up, scale out and scale across, and we’re answering the call of our customers who need innovative fiber solutions that address their businesses in every phase. To learn more about CommScope’s end-to-end fiber portfolios for data centers, contact your CommScope representative.
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