Wireless cross-connect switch

#Technical Field

#The present invention relates to network communications and, more particularly, to wireless cross-connect switches for network clusters and data centers.

#Description of the Related Art

#The disclosure will provide details in the following description of preferred embodiments with reference to the following figures wherein:

#FIG. 1 is a diagram of a wireless network in accordance with the present principles;

#FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a wireless cross-connect switch in accordance with the present principles;

#Embodiments of the present invention provide wireless cross-connect switches that employ beamforming and beamsteering to create a flexible and scalable interconnect system for server clusters and data centers. Two such switches are provided for herein: an inter-rack switch that provides switched wireless communication between individual racks, and an intra-rack switch that provides communication between devices within a single rack.

#The present embodiments are disclosed as using, e.g., millimeter-wave (mmWave) transmissions, for example at 60 GHz or 120 GHz mmWave communications have high rates of absorption in many materials and attenuate quickly, such that it is difficult or impossible to eavesdrop on mmWave communications without being in the line of sight. Using fine-beam antenna arrays with beamsteering, communications can be made secure and interference between transceivers can be minimized. mmWave communications also allow high data rates, such that mmWave communications can be compatibly used with fiber and copper interconnects in hybrid systems. The wireless cross-connect switches described below provide for static and dynamic switching for packet switched protocols and many be used for multicast, broadcast, and anycast addressing.

#Although mmWave communications are therefore specifically contemplated herein, it should be recognized that other forms of wireless communication may be employed as an alternative. Due to the high carrier frequency, there is considerable bandwidth available in mmWave, so that even simple modulation schemes that can be implemented at very low power can be used to carry high data rate signals. Since the antennas become very small at the high frequencies, the transmitters and receivers are compact and can be built into dense arrays. In addition, techniques to steer beams electronically can be used in conjunction with redundancy to improve system-level reliability. Spatial multiplexing inherent to fan-beam antennas allows co-existence and smart re-use of the frequency spectrum in more efficient way then traditional frequency division multiplexing systems.