Times are changing, and data centre density?

Just before the summer holidays I took our second daughter with me on a business trip to the USA and combined it with a few personal days. I did the same with our first daughter about three years ago. We are doing this when they are at the age of 14. It’s a great experience for them to see another part of the world outside Europe and of course it encourages them, as a native Dutch speaker, to speak more English. Now, I bet you are thinking, why am I telling you this? Well, this blog is all about the development of data centres and this all starts with the users that are generating the data. Let me explain…

When I visited the USA with our first daughter she stayed in touch with those at home front by sending a text message every now and then, and making a few calls. Three years later my second daughter connected to the hotel Wifi on arrival, established a video connection with home and friends, and distributed pictures on a daily basis using Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, with no question to her Dad on how to do any of it. Do I need to say more…? I am wondering how it will be in three years from now with our third daughter. 4K video, 5G mobile connection, full in-flight and rental car connection and 3D virtual tours of attractions before departure? Needless to say, our data centres will have to increase in density.

The need for higher data centre density is not only driven by the amount of data needed to be processed; it’s also due to the cost of ownership and installation. A density step was already made by moving from copper to fibre. On the fibre connectivity site we standardised the cabling standard on LC instead of SC because of the density on the PCB and panel for single fibre interconnects and MPO/MTP for multi-fibre interconnects. Density on data communication within a data centre is mainly focussing on the connector, cable and panel areas.

The LC connector is mainly used in its duplex form for both Transmit and Receive communication. No major form factor developments are expected because of its standard interface, ease of installation and cable form factor changes. On the multi-fibre site more changes are expected. In earlier communications I wrote about the MPOptimate line and its migration from 12 to 24 fibre in the same form factor. We could increase this to 72 fibres in the same form factor, as used on a MM level before, but the gating item is the attenuation which can be reached and the migration to single mode fibre. It’s all about the tolerances of the MT ferrule and the assembly process.

On the cable front, several developments are still ongoing. It focuses on the outer diameter the fibre cable and the way these fibres are bundled. It makes a lot of sense to reduce the cable diameter looking at the cost, ease of installation, increased number of cables in a duct and to prevent cables from obstructing airflow. On the multi mode fibre side, the migration in bandwidth is ongoing from OM3, OM4 to OM5. Also developments are ongoing on multicore fibres and reduced fibre diameter.

The panel developments are the most visible in a data centre. In short, they all focus on the number of connectors which can be handled in a standard 1U panel height and, as such, the number of fibres.

TE Connectivity has developments in all of the data communication density areas as described above so you can expect new releases coming out soon. Please stay connected with www.te.com/bns.

Next time I would like to take a quick look into the ‘near’ future and write about the evolution of printed circuit boards. Hope to ‘meet’ you again!

Willy Rietveld

W.Rietveld@TE.com