KYAMBOGO UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING
BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS
ENGINEERING
PROJECT PRESENTATION
BY
ODOCH HERBERT 18/U/ETE/10168/PE
SSENTONGO ISMAIL 18/U/ETE/10192/PE
YEHANGANE PROMISE 19/U/ETE/20193/PE
SUPERVISOR: Ms. HASAHYA EDITH
SURVEY OF WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS IN
DATA CENTER NETWORKS
CASE STUDY: AIRTEL UGANDA
 BACKGROUND

 A Data Center is a central repository containing a large number of servers connected together hosting application
and storing huge amounts of data. Basically providing computing services. Data Center Networks need to be
designed to meet the high computing and communications standards of the clients while taking into account
practical concerns like cable complexity, power consumption and cooling in the DCN design.
 Data centers (DCs) are becoming increasingly an integral part of the computing infrastructures of most enterprises.
Therefore, the concept of DC networks (DCNs) is receiving an increased attention in the network research
community.
 Most DCNs deployed today can be classified as wired DCNs using cables for intra-and inter-rack connections in
the network. Despite recent advances, wired DCNs face two inevitable problems; cabling complexity and hotspots.
Hotspots are nodes in DCN which may contain data blocks that are required by many network operations.
 To address these problems, recent research works suggest the incorporation of wireless communication technology
into DCNs. Wireless links can be used to either augment conventional wired DCNs, or to realize a pure wireless
DCN.
 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Despite recent advances, wired DCNs face two inevitable problems which are;
 Cabling complexity: Poor cable deployment is more than just messy to look at—it can restrict airflow, preventing
hot air from being expelled properly and blocking cool air from coming in. Over time, cable-related air damming can
cause equipment to overheat and fail, resulting in costly downtime.
 Hotspots. Hotspots are nodes in DCN which may contain data blocks that are required by many jobs. It is difficult
for tree-based DCNs to adapt to unpredictable traffic patterns resulting from hotspots due to the fixed hierarchical
topology and link oversubscription. Inadequate network capacity and oversubscribed links can lead to flow
congestions. This in turn can cause increased programming effort and reduction in concurrency of execution of
applications, and thus overall network performance degradation
 OBJECTIVES

General Objective
 To analyze and simulate the 60 GHz radio frequency (RF) and Free Space Optical FSO links , the two key
candidate technologies for implementing wireless links in DCNs.
Specific Objectives
 To present a generic classification scheme that can be used to classify current and future DCNs based on the
communication technology used in the network.
 Compare the use of DCNs with wireless links to DCNs with wired Links.
 JUSTIFICATION

 Wiring a huge number of servers is a quite demanding engineering task which exacerbates as the DCN size scales
up. Since wire deployment is usually an error prone task, necessary maintenance and modifications also consumes
considerable time and efforts. On the other hand, convenient plug-and-play wireless modules can alleviate wiring
cost and complexity to a great extent. Removing wires also increases the cooling efficiency and space utilization.
 WDCNs can handle oversubscription and hotspots thanks to its flexibility and reconfigurability. Given an effective
hardware topology, adapting the virtual topology as per the QoS demands and traffic loads also provides a higher
throughput and efficient bandwidth utilization.
 Cost Savings. Deploying wireless sensors results in lower capital expenditure. Less investment is needed for
supporting infrastructures such as cables, network switches, and the labor costs for installation. Pulling a single
Ethernet cable can cost anything between $150 to $1,000 per drop once you factor in cabling, termination,
switches, and labor. A wireless deployment can cost half of this.
 SIGNIFICANCE

 Low cost of services: With wireless communication, installation and maintenance cost being low there a high
possibility that there will be a reduction in the cost of services offered to the general public.
 Increased efficiency: Improved data communications lead to faster transfer of information within businesses
and between partners and customers. Data centers are for mainly storing of data and data manipulation
providing data services reliably and efficiently. Most businesses are accompanied by large data hence they
need data centers for their efficiency and reliability. Otherwise failure in delivering services reliably and
efficiently will lead to the loss of clients and profits
 SCOPE

 In our research, we basically look at Free Space Optical wireless technology, how we can design and simulate
their point to point links in the DCN to eliminate cabling complexity in Data Center Networks, eliminate
oversubscription of the network to some extent. We then propose some of the different classifications schemes of
communication technologies in the data centers.
 The research case-study is Airtel and most of the data collected from Airtel is used in the process of analysis
between the wired links used and the wireless technologies design.
 This research was carried out from 10th January 2022 to 10th March 2022.
 SCOPE

 Data Center Access: Since Airtel is a major telecommunications operator in the country, gaining access to their
data center is strictly limited to authorized personnel only. This therefore meant that even with all the correct
procedures followed with precision, we were denied physical access to the data center. We therefore had to settle
for an interview with one of the engineers. Being denied access to the data center was the major limitation because
it hindered physical analysis of the wired links used in the data centers and therefore, we had on to base our
findings on theoretical knowledge from the engineer.
 60 GHz: 60GHz technology is still purely theoretical and therefore has limited practical implementations. This
was a major hindrance in the simulation of a 60GHz link. This caused us to focus more on FSO simulations.
 METHODOLOGY: RESEARCH

 We used qualitative research approach where we collected data, made observations based on mathematical data
and determined the relationship between certain correlational parameters(BER and SNR).
 We used interview as a study tool to collect the data from the case study.
 We used Excel for part of the analysis due its’ easy and effective comparisons and powerful analysis of large
amounts of data.
 For the simulation, we used MATLAB and VSCode, with VSCode used to write the simulation code and
MATLAB for testing the simulation.
METHODOLOGY: SIMULATION
 METHODOLOGY: SIMULATION
Transmitter side
 Section One: Generate random bits at the receiver side.
 Section two: Convert binary bits into electrical signal.
 Section Three: Convert electrical signal into optical signal.
 Section Four: Apply channel effect to the optical signal.

Receiver side
 Section Five: Convert optical signal to electrical signal.
 Section six: Add noise effects to electrical signal.
 Section seven: Convert the received electrical signal into bits.
 Section eight: Perform required analysis while comparing the signal output form section seven to the output of section one.

Generating the channel effect coefficient

 Section nine: Generate random numbers based on a given channel model.
 Section ten: Convert the random numbers into fading channel coefficient.
 FINDINGS AND RESULTS: INTERVIEW
 Transmission medium: Data center Networks consist of fiber, coaxial and UTP cabling. Single mode fibers used to
connect to the internet, while multimode fibers used for MM connections. Coax used for very short connections like
switch to switch on the same rack while CAT-6A can also be used for short and medium links.
 Bandwidth: Connections carrying vast quantity of data over a single mode fiber connecting to the internet vary in
bandwidth at 10-100Gb/s. 10 gigabit ethernet and fiber channel are commonly used inside the data center.
 Power consumption: Of the three wired link categories fiber is most preferred because of low power consumption
especially if the links are long providing energy saving of 70% over cable links. 10G-BASE-CX coaxial can be used for
very short links effectively compared to UTP in terms of energy saving. CAT-6A consumes lots of power to transmit
10Gb/s on longer links and generates more heat.
 BER VS SNR: To analyze performance of a link BER VS SNR graphs are used where for a fixed transmission rate, the
curve will show you how well link works with changing SNR values. Depending on the telecom protocol, BER
requirements may vary from . SNR for wired connections is not considered much important but technically should
measure 29 or 30dB for cables under 100ft.
 Modulation: The most widely used modulation type for wired links is linear coding, focusing basically on fiber links
which use a type of linear coding called unipolar Signalling using a variant of it called non-return-to zero modulation
where a positive pulse represents 1 and no pulse represents 0.
 FINDINGS AND RESULTS: PROPOSED CLASSIFICATION

 Pure Wired/Wireless DCN: refers to a DCN in which a single (wired or wireless) communication technology is
used for intra and inter-rack communication. This can result in a pure electrical/optical/RF/FSO DCN.
 Hybrid Wired DCN: is a DCN that deploys two or more wired technologies. This refers to a DCN in which
electrical cables and optical fibers are used.
 Hybrid Wireless DCN: a DCN that uses two or more wireless technologies. A hybrid wireless DCN refers to a
DCN in which RF and FSO are used for communication.
 Hybrid (wired + wireless) DCN: Refers to a DCN that deploys at least one wired technology and augmented
with at least one wireless technology. This can lead to six types of hybrid DCNs which are Pure Electrical + RF,
Pure Optical + RF, Hybrid wired + RF, Pure Electrical + FSO, Pure Optical + FSO and Hybrid wired + FSO
 FINDINGS AND RESULTS: FSO SYSTEM DESIGN
PARAMETER Description

Power System is designed based on varying of optical power with average optical power as W and extinction ratio of 20. Hence fading here is
assumed to affect power.

Bit operations Synchronisation is not needed.

Number of bits for each burst transmission:
Data rate:
Number of samples per bit: 5

Baseband modulation Laser wavelength is

Bandwidth of baseband signal: Data rate*1.25

Laser Laser internal modulation efficiency: 0.5

Calibration constant: 0.5

Background light Background light power:

Lossy channel Miscellaneous loss: 0(dB)

Link-Length: 50m

Turbulence channel Refractive index structure coefficient:

Turbulence maximum frequency: 500Hz
Turbulence mode: Log-Normal or Gamma-Gamma

Pointing error channel Horizontal jitter: 0.5m

Horizontal/ vertical displacement: 0
Pointing error maximum frequency: 500Hz
 FINDINGS AND RESULTS: FSO SYSTEM DESIGN

PARAMETER Description

Transmitter optics Transmitter beam parameter type: Given divergence angle

Laser propagation model: Gaussian propagation model
Full vertical horizontal/vertical divergence angle: 10(Deg)
Vertical/Horizontal beam size: m
Orientation of source around the z axis in degrees is 0

Receiver optics Receiver aperture diameter: 0.005

Orientation of source around the z axis in degrees is 0
Receiver aperture transmittance:: 85%

Photodetector Responsivity : 0.5

Transimpedance amplifier gain: 100 (V/A)
Receiver load impedance: 50Ω
Noise Equivalent Power(NEP): W
Bandwidth to bit rate ratio: 1.25
 FINDINGS AND RESULTS: SIMULATION
The simulations were done with the general variances being the channel coefficient dividing the simulation into the
following:
Channel with log normal turbulence and pointing error:
 FINDINGS AND RESULTS: SIMULATION

 Channel with Gamma-Gamma turbulence and pointing errors

 FINDINGS AND RESULTS: SIMULATION

 Channel with only log-normal turbulence

 FINDINGS AND RESULTS: SIMULATION

 Channel with only Gamma-Gamma turbulence

 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

 After briefing and comparing the virtues and drawbacks of potential high-speed wireless technologies, we present
FSO technology as the first step taken in this research . The advances and challenges of implementing WDCNs
from both theoretical and practical points of views have also been clearly outlined. Before wireless technology can
be fully integrated into Data center networks, best practice requires that more research and experimentation be
carried out. Hybrid DCNs can then be implemented and studies conducted to show how wireless technologies
compliment wired links in data centers. If Hybrid DCNs prove successful, it is a clear indicator that purely
wireless data center networks are achievable.
 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

 From the findings and results, we see that there is potential of applying wireless technologies in data centers although the
BER vs SNR curve shows lower performance with relation to wired networks. With a trade-off of BER vs SNR performance
it is seen that there can be an ability to implement wireless links for the low-speed links in data centers. With this in mind, we
recommend the following;
 Data center operators: Mobile telecommunications operators and other data eccentric service providers should provide
provisions for experimenting with wireless technologies, specifically FSO, in their respective data centers. This should be
done in a nature that doesn’t disrupt daily operational requirements of the data centers and client needs.
 University research: Universities should also emphasize and provision research into the 60GHz technology. This can help to
broaden the understanding of this technology and make it practically applicable thus providing a diversified range of wireless
technologies to use.
 REFERENCES

 60 GHz Wireless Data Center Networks: a Survey, Caglar Terzi and Ibrahim Korpeoglu,
 S. M. Navidpour, M. Uysal and M. Kavehrad, "BER Performance of FreeSpace Optical Transmission with Spatial
Diversity," in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 6, no. 8, pp. 2813-2819, August 2007. doi:
10.1109/TWC.2007.06109,
 F. Yang, J. Cheng and T. A. Tsiftsis, "Free-Space Optical Communication with Nonzero Boresight Pointing Errors," in IEEE
Transactions on Communications, vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 713-725, February 2014. doi:10.1109/TCOMM.2014.010914.130249,
 Wireless 60 GHz Rack to Rack Communication in a Data Center Environment, Avery John Francois