Scale-Across AI Networking With Co-Packaged Optics
Futurum, Tuesday, April 28th, 2026
Scale-across AI networking designs using technologies like co-packaged optics address power and cooling constraints in data center infrastructure.
AI data centers face significant constraints with 22.5% of companies unable to build out quickly due to lack of power and cooling resources. Traditional InfiniBand architecture is designed for single-site deployments, but scale-across networking designs using Ethernet and emerging optical technologies like co-packaged optics (CPO) and linear pluggable optics (LPO) enable operators to tie multiple buildings and sites together while reducing power consumption.
These approaches allow data center operators to efficiently deploy GPU resources across geographically distributed locations. Both on-premises operators and cloud providers like Equinix are adopting scale-across networking to increase capacity and meet rising AI workload demands.