Cabinet Layout Optimization of Supercomputer Topologies for Shorter Cable Length

As the scales of supercomputers increase total cable length becomes enormous, e.g., up to thousands of kilometers. Recent high-radix switches with dozens of ports make switch layout and system packaging more complex. In this study, we study the optimization of the physical layout of topologies of switches on a machine room floor with the goal of reducing cable length. For a given topology, using graph clustering algorithms, we group switches logically into cabinets so that the number of inter-cabinet cables is small. Then, we map the cabinets onto a physical floor space so as to minimize total cable length. This is done by modeling and optimizing the mapping problem as a facility location problem. Our evaluation results show that, when compared to standard clustering/mapping approaches and for popular network topologies, our clustering approach can reduce the number of inter-cabinet cables by up to 40.3% and our mapping approach can reduce the inter-rack cable length by up to 39.6%.