Technologies for connecting data cables in a data center are disclosed. In the illustrative embodiment, racks of the data center are grouped into different zones based on the distance from the racks in a given zone to a network switch. All of the racks in a given zone are connected to the network switch using data cables of the same length. In some embodiments, certain physical resources such as storage may be placed in racks that are in zones closer to the network switch and therefore use shorter data cables with lower latency. An orchestrator server may, in some embodiments, schedule workloads or create virtual servers based on the different zones and corresponding latency of different physical resources.

Embodiments are generally directed apparatuses, methods, techniques and so forth to select two or more processing units of the plurality of processing units to process a workload, and configure a circuit switch to link the two or more processing units to process the workload, the two or more processing units each linked to each other via paths of communication and the circuit switch.

A network switch system includes a switch box and an optical communication device. The optical communication device includes a housing, a first light emitter disposed in the housing, a TOSA component set selectively disposed in the housing or within the switch box, and a ROSA disposed in the switch box. The first light emitter is optically coupled to the ROSA.

The invention is a datacenter network comprising a plurality of switches. The switches comprise edge switches and aggregation switches associated with sliceable bandwidth variable transceivers (S-BVT). An intermediate passive optical layer is communicatively coupled to the edge switches and the aggregation switches via fiber optic links associated with the S-BVTs. Furthermore, the intermediate passive optical layer is inserted between the edge and aggregation layers in order to combine the signals from each tier. The intermediate passive optical layer comprises a passive fiber coupler that combines the links between switches and each S-BVT receiver receives the signals sent from all S-BVT transmitters connected to the intermediate passive optical layer. The datacenter network is adapted to adjust the local oscillator wavelength of each S-BVT receiver and the wavelength and slice allocation of each S-BVT transmitter, thereby permitting dynamically allocating different resources to each link.

An exchange that provides for owners of physical ports of optical switches on a communications network to list bandwidth availability of the physical ports for selling or otherwise allocating the physical ports to others. The exchange may be configured to automatically transition the allocation of the physical ports between users by altering parameters of digital tokens bound to respective physical ports. A portal may be given to owners and/or licensees of the physical ports to alter routing of the physical ports by controlling the physical layer of the optical switch on which the physical ports reside. By using the principles described herein, conventional manual changes to the physical layer of the optical switches may be reduced or eliminated and owners of the physical ports may more easily offload extra bandwidth being supported by the physical ports.

Embodiments are generally directed apparatuses, methods, techniques and so forth determine an access level of operation based on an indication received via one or more network links from a pod management controller, and enable or disable a firmware update capability for a firmware device based on the access level of operation, the firmware update capability to change firmware for the firmware device. Embodiments may also include determining one or more configuration settings of a plurality of configuration settings to enable for configuration based on the access level of operation, and enable configuration of the one or more configuration settings.

A system for hot swapping a network switch without disconnecting the network switch connectors is provided. The system disaggregates the switch faceplate network cable connectors from the internal components of the network switch so that the internal switch components may be removed from the switch without disconnecting the switch network cables.

A device for a network switch comprises N input ports, and an electrical block including a plurality of electrical switches configured to route signals in an electrical domain. Each electrical switch includes M input ports, and the device further comprises an optical block coupled to the electrical block. The optical block is configured to route signals in an optical domain. A configuration of the optical block and a configuration of the electrical block are based on at least a number of the N input ports.

This disclosure describes multiplexed optical transceivers, such as DWDM multiplexer/demultiplexers, which are aggregated in a server chassis to establish a fabric topology interconnecting blade servers to a dedicated switch module. Blade servers installed in the server chassis can utilize not just Ethernet interfaces to connect to network segments, but also PCIe interfaces as well as a combination of Ethernet and PCIe interfaces. The aggregated optical transceivers multiplex and demultiplex wavelength-specific optical signals using a laser source, reducing power consumption over switched fabric ASICs. Servicing of the multiplexed optical transceivers is facilitated by installation and replacement of a laser source. Scaling and redundancy of fabric topology interconnects can be facilitated by selection of laser sources generating expanded ranges of discrete wavelengths. Furthermore, chassis management can be facilitated by configuring network controllers of blade servers to transport chassis management instructions over the fabric topology in-band over a network interface, rather than by an out-of-band pathway.

A system for efficiently interconnecting computing nodes can include a plurality of computing nodes and a plurality of network switches coupled in parallel to the plurality of computing nodes. The system can also include a plurality of node interfaces. Each computing node among the plurality of computing nodes can include at least one node interface for each network switch among the plurality of network switches. The plurality of node interfaces corresponding to a computing node can be configured to send data to another computing node via the plurality of network switches. The system can also include a plurality of switch interfaces. Each network switch among the plurality of network switches can include at least one switch interface for each computing node among the plurality of computing nodes. A switch interface corresponding to the computing node can be coupled to a node interface corresponding to the computing node.