Reinventing Facebook’s data center network

This post details the evolution of Meta's data center network architecture, introducing the F16 fabric design and HGRID aggregation layer. F16 offers 4x the capacity of previous designs with a simpler, flatter topology, achieved by using 100G CWDM4-OCP optics and single-chip 128-port fabric switches (Minipack) instead of multi-chip 400G designs. Minipack is a new modular building block switch that consumes 50% less power and space. HGRID is a larger aggregation layer designed to scale to six buildings per region, utilizing Minipack as its building block and flattening the regional network for East-West traffic. The post also highlights the continued use and evolution of FBOSS as the network operating system, supporting multiple generations of topologies and hardware platforms.