Network interconnect as a switch

A data center network, comprising:

• a plurality of network pods, a plurality of first spine planes, and a plurality of second spine planes;
• wherein each of the plurality of network pods comprises a first ICAS module and a plurality of first layer switches;
• wherein either the plurality of first spine planes or the plurality of second spine planes is deployed as a data center design option;
• wherein the first ICAS module comprises:
• n port groups, each port group comprising n-1 interfaces, wherein n is an integer equal or larger than 3;
• an interconnecting network implementing a full mesh topology, wherein each of the n port groups connects one of the n-1 interfaces to another of the n port groups statically, respectively;
• wherein the n port groups are indexed with an integer from 0 to n-1;
• wherein the n-1 interfaces of the n port groups are labeled with the same indexes as those of connected n port groups;
• wherein an interface with index j of one of the n port groups with index i is connected to an interface with index i of one of the n port groups with index j, where i is in the range of 0 to n-1, j is in the range 0 to n-1, wherein i does not equal to j, and wherein the interconnecting network comprises all connections between the n port groups;
• interfaces of each of the plurality of first layer switches are configured to be grouped into n port groups one of intralink and interlink respectively;
• wherein a number of the plurality of first layer switches is n, and wherein the plurality of first layer switches is indexed with an integer from 0 to n-1;
• wherein the plurality of first spine planes and network pods are interconnected through interlinks;
• wherein interlinks k of the network pods each connects one of the interlinks of kth of the plurality of first spine plane, respectively, and wherein the interlinks p of the plurality of first spine planes each connects one of the interlinks of the pth network pod, respectively;
• a plurality of downlinks to receive and transmit data signals to and from a plurality of servers;
• wherein the plurality of second spine planes and the plurality of network pods are interconnected through interlinks;
• wherein interlinks k of the network pods each connects one of the interlinks of the kth second spine plane, respectively, and wherein the interlinks p of the second spine planes each connects one of the interlinks of the pth network pod, respectively;
• and
• wherein a plurality of downlinks to receive and transmit data signals to and from a plurality of servers.