Maximizing the Performance of AI Backend Fabric with Keysight

This session provides an overview of the Keysight AI (KAI) Data Center Builder solution and how it supports each phase of AI data center design and deployment with actionable data to improve performance and increase the reliability of AI clusters. The presentation explains how KAI Data Center Builder helps streamline the design process, optimizes resource allocation, and enhances the overall efficiency and stability of AI infrastructures to achieve superior performance and reliability. The discussion focuses on the performance of backend fabrics within AI clusters, highlighting Keysight’s expertise in creating solutions for companies that build various products, including microchips, smartphones, routers, 5G towers, and AI data centers.

Alex Bortok, Lead Product Manager for AI Data Center Solutions at Keysight Technologies, introduces the KAI Data Center Builder product, which is designed to test backend networks GPUs use for data exchange, especially during model training and inference. He distinguishes it from front-end network testing solutions like Keysight Sideperf. The presentation covers the capabilities of the KAI Data Center Builder in emulating AI workloads, benchmarking network infrastructure performance, fine-tuning performance, reproducing production issues, and planning for new designs and topologies. The product emulates the behavior of real GPU servers, reducing the need to purchase them for lab testing.

The presentation also highlights two key KAI Data Center Builder applications: Collective Benchmarks and Workload Emulation. Collective Benchmarks allows users to zoom in on a single transaction between thousands of GPUs, which allows network and system parameters to be fine-tuned. Workload Emulation considers that GPUs not only move data but also compute, and that there is a dependency between how much data you compute and how much data you will move. It is noted that Kai Data Center Builder is a part of the larger Kai Solution Portfolio. The presentation concludes by leading into a KAI Data Center Builder demonstration.