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AI-Optimised Network Solutions
Drive the maximum performance from your AI infrastructure
High performance AI-optimised server and storage systems need an equally high-performance network infrastructure to support them and ensure there are no bottlenecks that effect data throughput. Whether located within a datacentre or at the edge of the network, connectivity is key to keep GPU-accelerated systems functioning optimally. The Scan AI Ecosystem includes networking solutions for Ethernet, InfiniBand, wireless and 4G / 5G options to deliver best in class performance - whether you’re at the development, training or inferencing stage of your project.
NICs & SmartNICs
Although only a small component in an overall dev box or server, the Network Interface Card or NIC, can contribute to a huge uplift in performance. Basic server NICs use Ethernet as a protocol and offer throughput speeds of between 1Gbps (Gigabits per second) and 40Gbps, with at least 10Gbps required for applications such as machine learning, deep learning, AI and HPC. For training larger models these speeds are insufficient and a SmartNIC is required.
A SmartNIC, sometimes referred to as an HCA (Host Channel Adapter), performs all the tasks of a regular NIC but in order to deliver higher throughput speeds a degree of off-loading is required to reduce pressure on other components in the server. This means the network card itself performs some of the processing tasks, removing the latency usually introduced by the CPU, system memory and operating system. This off-loading is referred to as Remote Memory Direct Access (RDMA) for InfiniBand cards and RDMA over converged Ethernet (RoCE) for Ethernet cards.
Where there are software defined storage (SDS) applications being run on the server, smartNICs have been superseded by Processing Units (DPUs), in order to deliver further offloading of management tasks. In the case of cloud-native environments, AI optimisation is further enhanced by use of SuperNICs.
The NIC & SmartNIC Range
Scan provides a wide range of SmartNICs and NICs from leading manufacturers Intel and NVIDIA Networking.
| Name | Protocol | Interfaces | Maximum Speed | Ports | Host Bus | RDMA / RoCE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA ConnectX-7 | Ethernet / InfiniBand | QSFP56 | 400Gbps | 1 / 2 | PCIe 5.0 |
Yes
|
| NVIDIA ConnectX-6 | Ethernet / InfiniBand | QSFP56 | 200Gbps | 1 / 2 | PCIe 4.0 |
Yes
|
| Intel 800 Series | Ethernet | SFP28 / QSFP28 | 100Gbps | 2 / 4 | PCIe 4.0 |
Yes
|
| NVIDIA ConnectX-5 | Ethernet / InfiniBand | SFP28 / QSFP28 | 100Gbps | 1 / 2 | PCIe 3.0 |
Yes
|
| NVIDIA ConnectX-4 | Ethernet / InfiniBand | SFP28 / QSFP28 | 50Gpbs | 1 / 2 | PCIe 3.0 |
Yes
|
| Intel 700 Series | Ethernet | RJ45 / SFP+ / QSFP+ / QSFP28 | 40Gbps | 1 / 2 / 4 | PCIe 3.0 |
No
|
| Intel 500 Series | Ethernet | RJ45 / LC Fibre / SFP28 | 10Gbps | 1 / 2 | PCIe 3.0 |
No
|
To learn more about Ethernet and InfiniBand Smart NIC and NIC solutions click here to read our Network Card Buyers Guide
NICs and Smart NICs
Configure a 3XS Systems server with your choice of Ethernet and InfiniBand network cards.
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Professional Services
As your network infrastructure grows and evolves, our team of professional services consultants are on hand to help with advice, network design or health checks, installation and configuration.
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New Network Infrastructure? Check your UPS!
It is vital to ensure that any new infrastructure equipment remains protected from power failures or surges by a UPS.
FIND OUT MOREData Processing Units
Data Processing Units (DPUs), sometimes also called Infrastructure Processing Units (IPUs), take the SmartNIC approach to the next level. Over and above the advanced off-loading that takes place on a SmartNIC a DPU is designed to be a datacentre infrastructure-on-a-chip - optimised for cloud workloads and high performance computing. By decoupling datacentre infrastructure from business applications, DPUs provide an array of processor cores for crypto, secure zero-trust management and data storage acceleration - all with considerable logic programmability.
Hardware accelerated storage applications performed by the NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPU include NVMe over fabrics (NVMe-oF), elastic storage virtualisation, encryption, compression and data deduplication. Security acceleration includes micro-segmentation, DDOS prevention, hardened isolation layer, hardware root of trust and IPsec/TLS and AES-XTS encryption acceleration.
NVIDIA DOCA is the key to unlocking the potential of the networking platform to offload, accelerate, and isolate demanding workloads. With DOCA - like CUDA for GPUs - developers can program DPU- and SuperNIC-accelerated services with zero-trust protection to address the increasing performance and security demands of modern datacentres.
Where server environments are heavily network dependant, AI optimisation is further enhanced by use of SuperNICs.
Data Processing Unit Specifications
Scan provides a wide range of DPUs from leading manufacturer NVIDIA Networking.
| Name | Protocol | Interfaces | Maximum Speed | Memory | Host Bus | RDMA / RoCE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA Bluefield-3 | Ethernet | QSFP56 | 2x 200GbE / 1x 400GbE | 16GB | PCIe 5.0 |
Yes
|
| NVIDIA Bluefield-3 | InfiniBand | QSFP56 | 2x 200Gb HDR / 1x 400Gb NDR | 16GB | PCIe 5.0 |
Yes
|
| NVIDIA Bluefield-2 | Ethernet | QSFP56 | 2x 100GbE / 1x 200GbE | 16GB | PCIe 4.0 |
Yes
|
| NVIDIA Bluefield-2 | InfiniBand | QSFP56 | 2x 100Gb EDR / 1x 200Gb HDR | 16GB | PCIe 4.0 |
Yes
|
Professional Services
As your network infrastructure grows and evolves, our team of professional services consultants are on hand to help with advice, network design or health checks, installation and configuration.
FIND OUT MORE
New Network Infrastructure? Check your UPS!
It is vital to ensure that any new infrastructure equipment remains protected from power failures or surges by a UPS.
FIND OUT MORESuperNICs
While a DPU and a SuperNIC share features and capabilities, SuperNICs are designed for network-intensive computing, providing RoCE network connectivity between GPU servers, optimising peak AI workload efficiency. As the sole purpose of the SuperNIC is to accelerate networking, they are less complex than DPUs. These reduced computing requirements translate into reduced power consumption, which may be especially important when considering systems containing up to eight SuperNICs.
Hardware accelerated networking applications performed by the NVIDIA SuperNICs include vSwitch and vRouter functions, NAT, load balancing, NFV, RoCE, Zero Touch RoCE and overlay network offloads including VXLAN.
NVIDIA DOCA is the key to unlocking the potential of the networking platform to offload, accelerate, and isolate demanding workloads. With DOCA - like CUDA for GPUs - developers can program DPU- and SuperNIC-accelerated services with zero-trust protection to address the increasing performance and security demands of modern datacentres.
SuperNIC Specifications
Scan provides a wide range of SuperNICs from NVIDIA Networking.
| Name | Protocol | Interfaces | Maximum Speed | Memory | Host Bus | RDMA / RoCE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA Bluefield-3 | Ethernet | QSFP112 | 2x 400GbE / 1x 800GbE | 32GB | PCIe 5.0 | RoCE Only |
| NVIDIA ConnectX-8 | InfiniBand | QSFP112 | 2x 400Gb NDR / 1x 800Gb XDR | 32GB | PCIe 6.0 | RoCE Only |
SuperNICs
Configure a 3XS Systems server with your choice of Ethernet and InfiniBand network cards.
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Professional Services
As your network infrastructure grows and evolves, our team of professional services consultants are on hand to help with advice, network design or health checks, installation and configuration.
FIND OUT MORE
New Network Infrastructure? Check your UPS!
It is vital to ensure that any new infrastructure equipment remains protected from power failures or surges by a UPS.
FIND OUT MORENetwork Switches
Network switches create the interconnects from the SmartNICs, SuperNICs or DPUs within AI-optimised dev boxes and servers to each other and also allow server access for all the researchers on the network from their respective systems. The size of the deep learning and AI workloads will determine which protocol, speeds and architectures will be required.
With the highest speeds of up to 800Gbps (Ethernet or InfiniBand), they enable applications including deep learning & AI, HPC, datacentre, cloud computing and storage applications to operate with maximum throughput and low-latency at any scale.
NVIDIA Spectrum Ethernet Switches
The NVIDIA Spectrum Ethernet Switch family includes options in various form factors from 16 to 256 physical ports. Spectrum switch families include the SN5000, built for AI; the SN4000 for cloud-scale networking, the SN3000 designed for the leaf and spine datacentre deployments; and the SN2000 for HCIs. Offering up to 800GbE ground-breaking performance and up to 25.6Tb/s throughput, they can be configured with a choice of network OS including NVIDIA Air, NVIDIA Cumulus, NVIDIA NetQ or NVIDIA Pure SONiC.
NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand Switches
Based on the NVIDIA Quantum switch fabric, the latest InfiniBand switches deliver up to 144-ports with a throughput of 800Gb/s XDR - along with smart acceleration engines and a robust architecture to achieve unmatched training performance and the ability to deploy trillion-parameter-scale AI models. Leveraging advanced hardware-based In-Network Computing with NVIDIA Scalable Hierarchical Aggregation and Reduction Protocol (SHARP), adaptive routing, and telemetry-based congestion control for highest performance, these switches are enabling a new frontier of AI innovation.
High Performance Network Switch Specifications
Scan provides a wide range of network switches from leading manufacturer NVIDIA Networking (formerly Mellanox).
| Name | Protocol | Interfaces | Maximum Speed | Maximum Ports | Data Throughput |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA Spectrum SN5000 | Ethernet | QSFP128 | 800Gbps | 256 | 51.2Tb/s |
| NVIDIA Spectrum SN4000 | Ethernet | QSFP56 / QSFP-DD | 400Gbps | 128 | 12.8Tb/s |
| NVIDIA Spectrum SN3000 | Ethernet | SFP28 / QSFP28 / QSFP56 | 200Gbps | 128 | 12.8Tb/s |
| NVIDIA Spectrum SN2000 | Ethernet | SFP28 / QSFP28D | 100Gbps | 64 | 6.4Tb/s |
| NVIDIA Quantum QM9700 | InfiniBand | QSFP56 | 400Gbps | 64 | 51.2Tb/s |
| NVIDIA Quantum QM8700 | InfiniBand | QSFP56 | 200Gbps | 40 | 16Tb/s |
To learn more about Ethernet, InfiniBand and advanced switch technologies click here to read our Network Switch Buyers Guide or use the NVIDIA NETWORKING CONFIGURATION TOOLS to build your own network.
Ethernet & Infiniband Switches
Configure your network with your choice of Ethernet and Infiniband network switches from NVIDIA Networking.
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Professional Services
As your network infrastructure grows and evolves, our team of professional services consultants are on hand to help with advice, network design or health checks, installation and configuration.
FIND OUT MORE
New Network Infrastructure? Check your UPS!
It is vital to ensure that any new infrastructure equipment remains protected from power failures or surges by a UPS.
FIND OUT MOREGateways & Routers
Performance-hungry datacentre applications leverage NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand's high throughput, extremely low-latency and In-Network Computing acceleration engines to deliver world-leading performance and scalability. The NVIDIA Skyway router and gateway appliances enable seamless conversion from InfiniBand to Ethernet-based networks.
NVIDIA Skyway enables high performance, low-latency connectivity from NVIDIA Quantum 200Gbps InfiniBand to 100/200Gbps Ethernet. The scalable gateway appliance enables IT administrators to adapt to increasing user demand over time. Moreover, by leveraging the Skyway appliance, InfiniBand networks can maintain a low-latency interconnect to ensure maximum application performance. Skyway is an appliance-based InfiniBand-to-Ethernet gateway, designed for quick and easy set up and management. Installed at the boundary between InfiniBand and Ethernet networks, the appliance supports standard IP routing protocols and is deployable on any InfiniBand topology. Skyway contains eight ConnectX Virtual Protocol Interconnect (VPI) dual-port Smart NICs that enable the hardware-based forwarding of
IP packets over InfiniBand (IPoIB) to Ethernet and vice versa. Skyway also includes the NVIDIA Gateway operating system (MLNX-GW) which manages both the appliance hardware as well as the high availability and load balancing between gateway appliances and between ports.
Gateway and Router Specifications
Scan provides a wide range of gateways and routers from leading manufacturer NVIDIA Networking (formerly Mellanox).
| Name | Protocol | Maximum Speed | Maximum | Data Throughput |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA Skyway Gateway | Ethernet / InfiniBand | 100Gbps /200Gbps | 8 / 8 | 1.6Tb/s |
| NVIDIA SB7880 Router | InfiniBand | 100Gbps | 36 | 7.2TB/s |
Gateways & Routers
Connect your networks with your choice of Ethernet and Infiniband network routers from NVIDIA Networking.
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Professional Services
As your network infrastructure grows and evolves, our team of professional services consultants are on hand to help with advice, network design or health checks, installation and configuration.
FIND OUT MORE
New Network Infrastructure? Check your UPS!
It is vital to ensure that any new infrastructure equipment remains protected from power failures or surges by a UPS.
FIND OUT MOREInterconnects
The NVIDIA LinkX product family of cables and transceivers provides a complete line of 10, 25, 40, 50, 100, 200, 400 and 800GbE in Ethernet and EDR, HDR, NDR and XDR in InfiniBand products for Cloud, HPC, Enterprise, telco, storage, AI and datacentre applications. LinkX cables and transceivers are often used to link top-of-rack switches downwards to SmartNICs, SuperNICs and DPUs in servers and storage appliances and / or upwards in switch-to-switch applications throughout the network infrastructure.
Interconnect products are available in both Ethernet and InfiniBand protocols in 1, 4 and 8-channels, SFP and QSFP form factors. LinkX has solutions for any datacentre speed and reach from 0.5m to 40km providing lower latency, lower power, better reliability and competitive ROI.
DAC & Splitter Cable Products
LinkX Direct Attach Copper cables are the lowest cost, high-speed links for inside racks up to 5-meters for 25G-NRZ and 3-meters for 50G PAM4-based cables. DACs offer zero latency delays and power consumption ideal for switch-to-CPU, GPU, and storage subsystems. LinkX designs and manufactures its cables and are extensively tested.
Active Optical Cables (AOCs)
LinkX AOCs are the lowest cost optical interconnect. Fibres are bonded inside connectors are similar to DACs but work at up to 100 meters. Available at 25Gb - 800Gb data rates, NVIDIA Networking LinkX has the longest history in the marketplace building AOCs and are widely used in HPCs, hyperscale and enterprise networking and in DGX AI appliances.
Optical Transceivers
LinkX transceivers are designed to offer multi- and single-mode transceivers from 1Gb - 800Gb in QSFP28, QSFP56 and QSFP112 formats in 2km, 10km and 40km reaches in both NRZ and 50G-PAM4 modulation. The same transceivers are used in LinkX AOCs and splitters.
Interconnects
Connect your network switches, servers and storage with class-leading NVIDIA LinkX products.
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Professional Services
As your network infrastructure grows and evolves, our team of professional services consultants are on hand to help with advice, network design or health checks, installation and configuration.
FIND OUT MORE
New Network Infrastructure? Check your UPS!
It is vital to ensure that any new infrastructure equipment remains protected from power failures or surges by a UPS.
FIND OUT MOREWireless Networking
Although wired networking is the common approach for deep learning and AI workflows due to their high demands and time-critical nature, wireless network connectivity may also be required in other areas of your organisation. When wireless connectivity is used to support elements of your business, it must also be reliable, consistent and fast. To guarantee this performance businesses are turning increasingly to managed solutions whereby the various access points that cover any given area are controlled by either a master wireless access point (WAP) or an external controller, thus enabling greater control. Benefits of a solution like this include improved seamless hand-off as users roam between access points, better load balancing of user access across the wireless network and enhanced security - increasing the ability to monitor and detect rogue users - either with non-compliant devices or unauthorised access.
Wireless Access Point Specifications
Scan provides a wide range of wireless products from leading manufacturers including Ubiquiti.
| Unifi WAP Name | Wireless Protocol | Ports | Maximum Antennas |
|---|---|---|---|
| nanoHD | 802.11ac Wave2 | 1x GbE (PoE+) | 2.4GHz / 5GHz MIMO |
| In-wall HD | 802.11ac Wave2 | 5x 1GbE (PoE+) | 2.4GHz / 5GHz MIMO |
| FlexHD | 802.11ac Wave2 | 1x GbE (PoE+) | 2.4GHz / 5GHz MIMO |
| BaseStation XG | 802.11ac Wave2 | 1x GbE (PoE+) | 5GHz MIMO |
To learn more about wireless technologies click here to read our Wireless Buyers Guide
Airtime & Connectivity Services
Once you get to the inferencing stage in your AI journey, high speed and low latency connectivity is not only required within the datacentre and corporate network, but also outside in the real world, where edge AI devices gather data from cameras, sensors, vehicle and other connected end points. To address this wider connectivity requirement, Scan has partnered with Scancom and EE to provide a wide range of flexible SIM card options covering both 4G and the latest 5G bandwidths; and with BTnet to deliver leased line services for the datacentre.
Find out more
Wireless Solutions
Configure your wireless network with your choice of access points and controllers from Ubiquiti.
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Professional Services
As your network infrastructure grows and evolves, our team of professional services consultants are on hand to help with advice, network design or health checks, installation and configuration.
FIND OUT MORE
New Network Infrastructure? Check your UPS!
It is vital to ensure that any new infrastructure equipment remains protected from power failures or surges by a UPS.
FIND OUT MORE