TW202248800A - Wireless sensing network and related airflow control method - Google Patents

Abstract

A wireless sensing network, for a rack device of a data center is provided, wherein the rack device includes a plurality of servers. The wireless sensing network includes a host system, a wireless coordination device, coupled to the host system and including a coordination communication module; and a plurality of wireless endpoint devices, configured to connect the wireless coordination device via a wireless connection, wherein the plurality of wireless endpoint devices are respectively implemented on the plurality of servers, and each of the wireless endpoint devices includes a communication module, configured to communicate with the wireless coordination device; a sensing module, configured to sense an inlet temperature and an outlet temperature of a first server of the plurality of servers; and an actuating module, coupled to a fan device, configured to determine a rotation speed of the fan device according to a rotation speed information.

Description

Wireless sensor network and related gas flow control method

The present invention refers to a wireless sensing network and its related gas flow control method, especially to a wireless sensing network and its related gas flow control method for achieving gas flow balance of a cabinet device in a data center.

The operation of existing data centers requires a large amount of electricity, and the distribution of electricity consumption includes information equipment (such as computing servers, storage equipment, and network equipment), cooling equipment (such as air-conditioning, fans, cold water supply pumps), etc. The power consumption efficiency of existing data centers can be used as an indicator of Power Usage Efficiency (PUE), which is the ratio of total power consumption to power consumption of information equipment (ie, PUE= total power consumption/ Generally speaking, the PUE value is greater than or equal to 1. When the PUE value is 1, it means that the power consumption of the cooling equipment is zero, which belongs to the data center with good energy efficiency.

Please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 . FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are respectively a top view and a side view of a computer room configuration 10 in an existing data center. As shown in FIG. 1 , the computer room configuration 10 may include rack servers 102 , air-conditioning equipment CRAC, raised floor RF, cold aisle isolation equipment CI, and hot aisle isolation equipment HI. Among them, the raised floor RF, the cold aisle isolation equipment CI and the hot aisle isolation equipment HI are used to manage the air flow (airflow), so as to reduce the hot air recirculation (hot air recirculation) at the outlet of the rack server 102 and reduce the inlet of the rack server 102 Cold air leakage. However, in the actual operation of the data center, although the cold aisle isolation equipment CI and the hot aisle isolation equipment HI can increase the efficiency of the gas flow circulation, it also causes the gas flow required by the rack server 102 to be different from that supplied by the cold aisle isolation equipment CI. The flow does not match, resulting in the pressure difference between the inlet and outlet of the rack server 102, resulting in partial hot air backflow or cold air overflow. In addition, the power consumption of cooling equipment in the existing data center accounts for about 30% of the total power consumption. above.

Therefore, under the same hardware condition, how to improve the cooling efficiency and reduce the power consumption of the cooling equipment becomes an important issue.

Therefore, the present invention provides a wireless sensing network and its related gas flow control method. The wireless sensing network is installed in the data center to improve the cooling efficiency of the data center and reduce the power consumption of the cooling equipment at the same time.

An embodiment of the present invention discloses a wireless sensor network for a cabinet device in a data center, wherein the cabinet device includes a plurality of servers, the wireless sensor network includes a main system; a wireless coordinating device , coupled to the main system, including a coordinating communication module; and a plurality of wireless terminal devices connected to the wireless coordinating device through a wireless connection, wherein the plurality of wireless terminal devices are respectively arranged in a plurality of servers of the cabinet device , and each wireless terminal device includes a communication module for communicating with the wireless coordinating device; a sensing module for sensing an inlet temperature and an outlet temperature of a server, and the inlet temperature and the outlet temperature is sent to the communication module; and an actuation module, coupled to a fan device, is used to adjust the speed of the fan device according to a speed information.

An embodiment of the present invention further discloses a gas flow control method for a rack device in a data center, wherein the rack device includes a plurality of servers, and the gas flow control method includes sensing one of each server Inlet temperature and an outlet temperature; the sensed inlet temperature and the outlet temperature of each server are sent to a communication module of the corresponding wireless terminal device; according to the inlet temperature and the outlet temperature corresponding to each server The outlet temperature determines the rotational speed information of the fan device corresponding to each wireless terminal device; and adjusts the rotational speed of the fan device corresponding to each wireless terminal device according to the rotational speed information; wherein, one of the plurality of servers corresponds to When the inlet temperature of the first server is higher than a preset value, the rotation speed of the fan device corresponding to the first server is increased.

Please refer to Figures 3 and 4, Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of a wireless sensor network 30 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a wireless sensor network 30 according to an embodiment of the present invention applied to a data center DC The schematic diagram. The wireless sensor network 30 can be applied to a rack device R of the data center DC, wherein the rack device R of the data center DC can include servers S_1 - S_6 respectively. In the embodiment of the present invention, the wireless sensor network 30 is a distributed architecture, which transmits and receives information in a wireless transmission manner. The wireless sensor network 30 includes a main system 302 , a wireless coordinating device 304 , a plurality of wireless terminal devices 306_1 - 306_6 and a circulation fan wireless terminal device 308 . The main system 302 can be used to collect and analyze the data of the wireless sensor network 30, such as a device with a processing unit. The wireless coordinating device 304 is coupled to the main system 302 and may include a coordinating communication module 3042 for communicating with the wireless terminal devices 306_1 - 306_6 and the main system 302 . The wireless terminal devices 306_1-306_6 are connected with the wireless coordinating device 304 through a wireless connection, wherein each wireless terminal device 306_1-306_6 is set in each server of the rack device R, and each wireless terminal device 306_1-306_6 includes a communication A module 3062 , a sensing module 3064 and an actuation module 3066 . The communication module 3062 is used to communicate with the wireless coordinating device 304. The sensing module 3064 can be a temperature sensor, which is used to sense an inlet temperature and an outlet temperature of a corresponding server, and compare the inlet temperature and the outlet temperature. The temperature is sent to the communication module 3062 , and the actuation module 3066 is coupled to a fan device for adjusting the rotation speed of the fan device according to a rotation speed information, wherein the rotation speed information is determined by the main system 302 . The circulating fan wireless terminal device 308 is installed on the raised floor RF of the data center DC, and the circulating fan wireless terminal device 308 is located at the bottom of the rack device R, as shown in FIG. 4 . In this way, the wireless sensor network 30 of the embodiment of the present invention can quickly determine the corresponding fan device and the temperature corresponding to each server according to the inlet temperature and outlet temperature sensed by each wireless terminal device. The circulating fan circulates the speed of the fan device 3088 of one of the wireless terminal devices 308, thereby rapidly eliminating hot spots in the data center DC.

In one embodiment, the wireless coordinating device 304 of the wireless sensor network 30 of the embodiment of the present invention and each wireless terminal device 306_1-306_6 can utilize the ATmega 2560 microcontroller developed by Arduino to realize the coordination of the wireless coordinating device 304 The communication module 3042 and the communication module 3062 of each wireless terminal device can be realized by the XBee wireless module, therefore, the wireless sensing network 30 of the embodiment of the present invention can realize a star network (Star Network) structure, namely A network topology of a wireless coordinator 304 and multiple wireless terminal devices 306_1-306_6.

In detail, the wireless coordinating device 304 of the wireless sensor network 30 in the embodiment of the present invention communicates with the main system 302 through the coordinating communication module 3042 to determine the corresponding The rotation speed information of the fan device of each wireless terminal device 306_1-306_6. For example, when the sensing module 3064 of the wireless terminal device 306_2 senses the inlet temperature of the server S_2, the communication module 3062 of the wireless terminal device 306_2 transmits the sensed inlet temperature to the host through the wireless coordinating device 304 system 302, and when the main system 302 determines that the inlet temperature of the server S_2 is higher than a preset value, the main system 302 increases the rotation speed of the fan device corresponding to the server. In this case, the main system 302 transmits the information of adjusting the rotation speed of the wireless terminal device 306_2 to the wireless terminal device 306_2 through the wireless coordinating device 304, and the actuation module 3066 of the wireless terminal device 306_2 adjusts the rotation speed of the corresponding fan device, To quickly eliminate hotspots in the data center DC.

In another embodiment, when the wireless terminal device 306_1 and the wireless terminal device 306_4 of the wireless sensor network 30 detect that the inlet temperature of the corresponding server S_1 and server S_4 is higher than the preset value, the host will The system 302 increases the speed of the fan unit of the corresponding server. On the other hand, the main system 302 of the wireless sensor network 30 can also adjust the rotation speed of the fan device of the corresponding server according to the outlet temperature sensed by the sensor module 3064 of the wireless terminal device 306_1-306_6, not limited to Examples above.

In addition to sensing the inlet temperature and outlet temperature of the servers S_1-S_6 through the wireless terminal devices 306_1-306_6 to adjust the rotation speed of the fan device of the corresponding server, the wireless sensor network 30 in the embodiment of the present invention can also use the circulation fan The wireless end device 308 eliminates hot spots in the data center DC. Specifically, since the circulating fan wireless terminal device 308 is installed at the bottom of the rack device R, the main system 302 of the embodiment of the present invention can also use the temperature sensed by the circulating fan wireless terminal device 308 and the wireless terminal device 306_1 - The inlet temperature and outlet temperature sensed by the sensing module 3064 of 306_6 adjust the speed of the fan device of the corresponding circulating fan wireless terminal device 308 to quickly eliminate the hot spot of the data center DC.

Please refer to FIG. 5, which is a schematic side view of a rack device R according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, in the data center DC, a ventilation channel VI formed by the rack device R and another rack device R', wherein the rack device R' includes servers S_1'-S_6', and Inlet_1-Inlet_6, Inlet_1'-Inlet_6' and outlet temperatures Outlet_1-Outlet_6, Outlet_1'-Outlet_6' of each server S_1-S_6, S_1'-S_6' in the rack device R. As shown in FIG. 4 , the circulating fan wireless terminal device 308 of the embodiment of the present invention includes a circulating fan communication module 3082 , a circulating fan sensing module 3084 and a circulating fan actuating module 3086 . Similar to the wireless terminal devices 306_1-306_6, the circulating fan communication module 3082 of the circulating fan wireless terminal device 308 is used to communicate with the wireless coordinating device 304 through a wireless connection, and the circulating fan sensing module 3084 can be a temperature sensor , used to sense the intake air temperature Tref of one of the ventilation passages of the data center DC, and transmit the intake air temperature Tref to the main system 302 . The circulating fan actuating module 3086 is coupled to the circulating fan device 3088, and is used to adjust the speed of the circulating fan device 3088 according to a heat dissipation index (Supply Heat Index, SUI), wherein the heat dissipation index can be represented by formula (1):

...(1)

...(1)

Wherein, the temperature Tinrack is an average value of the inlet temperature of each server, and the temperature Toutrack is an average value of the outlet temperature of each server.

The heat dissipation index is determined by the main system 302 (through the wireless coordinating device 304) according to the cold air inlet temperature Tref of the ventilation channel, the average value of the inlet temperature of each server, and the average value of the outlet temperature of each server, and then according to the heat dissipation The index SUI determines the speed of the circulation fan of the circulation fan wireless terminal device 308 . In this way, when the heat dissipation index SUI approaches zero, it means that the average Tinrack of the inlet temperature of each server is approximately equal to the cold air inlet temperature Tref, that is to say, there is almost no return flow of hot air; when the heat dissipation index SUI When the average value of the inlet temperature of each server (i.e. temperature Tinrack) is greater than the cold air intake temperature Tref, it means that the air intake flow of the data center DC cannot match the flow of the server, which may cause the hot air to flow back and cause each The average value of the inlet temperature of a server (ie temperature Tinrack) rises, in this case, the main system 302 decides to increase the rotation speed of the circulation fan unit to quickly eliminate the hot spot of the data center DC.

In one embodiment, the main system 302 can determine the thermal index SUI and the speed of the circulation fan of the circulation fan wireless terminal device 308 through a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller PID_controller. Please refer to FIG. 6, which is a schematic diagram of a proportional-integral-derivative controller PID_controller according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Figure 6, the proportional-integral-derivative controller PID_controller can determine the speed of the corresponding circulating fan device according to the cold air intake temperature Tref and the average value of the inlet temperature of each server (ie temperature Tinrack).

The operation mode of the wireless sensor network 30 of the embodiment of the present invention can be summarized as a gas flow control method 70 , as shown in FIG. 7 . The steps of the gas flow control method 70 include:

Step 702: start.

Step 704: Sensing the inlet temperature and outlet temperature of each server.

Step 706: Send the sensed inlet temperature and outlet temperature of each server to the communication module of the corresponding wireless terminal device.

Step 708: Determine the rotation speed information of the fan device corresponding to each wireless terminal device according to the inlet temperature and outlet temperature corresponding to each server.

Step 710: Adjust the rotation speed of the fan device corresponding to each wireless terminal device according to the rotation speed information.

Step 712: end.

For the operation process of the gas flow control method 70 , reference may be made to the above-mentioned embodiment of the wireless sensor network 30 , and details are not repeated here.

In this way, the wireless sensor network 30 of the embodiment of the present invention can adjust the rotation speed of the fan device of the corresponding circulating fan wireless terminal device 308 according to the temperature of the server sensed by each wireless terminal device 306_1-306_6. In addition, the wireless sensor network 30 of the embodiment of the present invention can also adjust the rotation speed of the circulating fan device according to the cold air intake temperature Tref, the inlet temperature and the outlet temperature of each server, thereby quickly eliminating hot spots in the data center DC.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the wireless sensor network and its related gas flow control method of the present invention are applicable to servers to improve cooling efficiency, making the servers suitable for artificial intelligence (AI) computing, edge Computing (Edge Computing), can also be used as a 5G server, cloud server or Internet of Vehicles server.

It should be noted that those skilled in the art can appropriately design the wireless sensor network according to different system requirements. For example, the number of wireless terminal devices installed in the server, or the number of sensing modules installed in the wireless terminal device, and the installation position of the circulating fan wireless terminal device are not limited to the bottom of the raised floor, all can be based on different Adjustment according to the requirements, not limited thereto, all belong to the scope of the present invention.

To sum up, the present invention provides a wireless sensing network and its related gas flow control method. The wireless sensing network is installed in the data center to improve the cooling efficiency of the data center and reduce the power consumption of the cooling equipment at the same time . The above descriptions are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and all equivalent changes and modifications made according to the scope of the patent application of the present invention shall fall within the scope of the present invention.

10: Computer room configuration 102: Cabinet server 30: Wireless sensor network 302: Main system 304: wireless coordination device 3042: Coordination communication module 306_1-306_6: wireless terminal device 3062: Communication module 3064: Sensing module 3066:Actuation module 308: Circulation fan wireless terminal device 3082:Circulation fan communication module 3084: Circulation fan sensor module 3086: Circulation Fan Actuation Module 3088:Circulation fan unit 70: Gas flow control method 702-712: steps CI: Cold Aisle Isolation Device CRAC: Cold Air Conditioning Equipment DC: data center HI: Hot Aisle Isolation Device Inlet_1-Inlet_6, Inlet_1'-Inlet_6': inlet temperature Outlet_1-Outlet_6, Outlet_1'-Outlet_6': outlet temperature PID_controller: proportional-integral-derivative controller R, R': cabinet installation RF: Raised Floor S_1-S_6, S_1'-S_6': Servers SUI: thermal index Tinrack: the average of the inlet temperature of each server Toutrack: the average value of the outlet temperature of each server Tref: cold air intake temperature VI: ventilation channel

Figure 1 and Figure 2 are respectively a top view and a side view of a computer room configuration in an existing data center. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a wireless sensor network according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a wireless sensor network according to an embodiment of the present invention applied to a data center. Fig. 5 is a schematic side view of the cabinet device of the embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a proportional-integral-derivative controller according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a gas flow control method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

30: Wireless sensor network

302: Main system

304: wireless coordination device

3042: Coordination communication module

306_1-306_6: wireless terminal device

3062: Communication module

3064: Sensing module

3066:Actuation module

Claims (10)

A wireless sensor network is used in a cabinet device of a data center, wherein the cabinet device includes a plurality of servers, and the wireless sensor network includes: a main system; a wireless coordinating device, coupled to the main system, including a coordinating communication module; and A plurality of wireless terminal devices are connected to the wireless coordinating device through a wireless connection, wherein the plurality of wireless terminal devices are respectively installed in a plurality of servers of the cabinet device, and each wireless terminal device includes: a communication module, used to communicate with the wireless coordinating device; a sensing module for sensing an inlet temperature and an outlet temperature of a server, and transmitting the inlet temperature and the outlet temperature to the communication module; and An actuation module, coupled to a fan device, is used to adjust the speed of the fan device according to a speed information. The wireless sensor network as described in claim 1, wherein the wireless coordinating device is used to communicate with the main system to determine the corresponding The rotational speed information of the fan device of the terminal device. The wireless sensor network as described in claim 2, wherein when the inlet temperature of the first server corresponding to the plurality of servers is higher than a preset value, the main system decides to increase the temperature corresponding to the first server The speed of the fan unit of the device. The wireless sensor network as described in claim 1, which further includes: A circulating fan wireless terminal device is installed on a raised floor of the data center, which includes: A circulating fan communication module, used to communicate with the wireless coordinating device; A circulating fan sensing module is used to sense the intake temperature of the cold air in a ventilation channel of the data center, and transmit the intake temperature of the cold air to the main system; and A circulation fan actuating module, coupled to a circulation fan device, is used to adjust the rotation speed of the circulation fan device according to a heat dissipation index. The wireless sensor network as described in claim 4, wherein the heat dissipation index is obtained by the main system based on the cold air inlet temperature of the ventilation channel, an average value of the inlet temperature of each server and the temperature of each server An average value of the outlet temperature is determined, and the main system determines the speed of the circulation fan device of the circulation fan wireless terminal device according to the heat dissipation index. The wireless sensor network as described in claim 5, wherein when the average value of the inlet temperature of each server of the heat dissipation index is greater than the intake temperature of the cold air, the rotation speed of the circulation fan device is increased. The wireless sensor network as described in claim 5, wherein the main system determines the heat dissipation index and the circulation fan of the circulation fan wireless terminal device according to a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller The speed of the device. A gas flow control method for a cabinet device in a data center, wherein the cabinet device includes a plurality of servers, the gas flow control method includes: sensing an inlet temperature and an outlet temperature of each server; Sending the sensed inlet temperature and outlet temperature of each server to a communication module of the corresponding wireless terminal device; determining the rotational speed information of the fan device corresponding to each wireless terminal device according to the inlet temperature and the outlet temperature corresponding to each server; and According to the rotation speed information, adjust the rotation speed of the fan device corresponding to each wireless terminal device; Wherein, when the inlet temperature of the first server corresponding to the plurality of servers is higher than a preset value, the rotation speed of the fan device corresponding to the first server is increased. The gas flow control method as described in Claim 8, which further includes: Sensing the intake temperature of the cold air in a ventilation channel of the data center, and transmitting the intake temperature of the cold air to a circulation fan communication module of a circulation fan wireless terminal device; Determine a heat dissipation index according to the cold air inlet temperature of the ventilation channel, an average value of the inlet temperature of each server, and an average value of the outlet temperature of each server; and Determine the rotation speed of the circulation fan device of the circulation fan wireless terminal device according to the heat dissipation index; wherein, when the average value of the inlet temperature of each server of the heat dissipation index is greater than the cold air intake temperature, increase the circulation fan device The rotational speed. The gas flow control method as described in Claim 9, wherein the heat dissipation index and the rotation speed of the circulation fan device of the circulation fan wireless terminal device are determined according to a proportional-integral-derivative controller.

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