contents 40 The Great Interconnect Showdown – InfiniBand versus Ultra Ethernet For more than two decades, InfiniBand (IB) has been lauded as the gold standard in this arena. However, an emerging standard, Ultra Ethernet Transport (UET), aims to challenge that dominance by integrating IB’s performance capabilities into the vast, open ecosystem of Ethernet. By Justin W. Hobbs 44 Reimagining Power at the Edge A quiet revolution is happening, not through marketing campaigns or vendor hype, but through the maturation of Class 2 low voltage, Class 4 fault- managed power, and other emerging 380V and 800V DC standards that solve the safety and compatibility barriers that stalled in data centers for years. By Bolis Ibrahim, Zenon Radewych, Anjanaa Santhanam 50 The Impact of AI on Data Center Cabling Requirements GenAI networks have changed the landscape of network implementations. Not only do they challenge power, thermal and time constraints, they also challenge the way we must approach cabling and connectivity. By Kenneth Hall
January/February/March 2026 Volume 47, Issue 1
FROM THE BOARD PRESIDENT 05 Message from the Board President By William "Bill" Foy COVER ARTICLE 06 The New Engine of Innovation: AI Infrastructure and the Next Revolution in ICT Design AI is not just transforming how we compute; it is changing how we build. Every watt, every optical fiber strand, every square inch of these facilities is being redesigned to support a new kind of digital organism—one that learns, reasons, and scales exponentially. By Justin Powell 14 AI-Enabled Smart ICT Infrastructure: Building Resilient Networks for a Disaster-Ready Future By prioritizing the development of resilient ICT infrastructure, leaders can not only mitigate disaster risk, but also contribute to broader goals of sustainable development and social well-being. By Kiran Elias 22 DAS-Based Private Networking and AI Sensing for Data Centers Modern, intelligent repeater-based in-building DAS that supports both public and private cellular connectivity is becoming essential data center infrastructure. By Michiel Lotter, Colin Abrey, and Brian Ensign 30 Powering the AI Revolution: Building the Infrastructure That Makes Intelligence Possible AI is rapidly transforming the physical structure of data centers. Instead of designing facilities around servers and processors, it is the movement of data and the delivery of energy that are the primary concerns. By Manja Thessin
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