IP Infusion announced plans to extend its OcNOS-DC network operating system to Ethernet switching platforms based on Broadcom’s Tomahawk 6 silicon, targeting disaggregated AI data center fabrics. The October 14 announcement sets out planned support for 102.4 Tbps switching and 1.6T Ethernet interfaces, with a technology preview scheduled for NANOG 98, October 19–21.

Tomahawk 6 offers 102.4 Tbps of switching capacity, including configurations with 64 × 1.6 TbE ports or 512 × 200 GbE ports. IP Infusion intends to add support through OcNOS-DC 7.2. The software-hardware separation allows operators to evaluate merchant-silicon switches and independent network operating systems as distinct components of an Ethernet fabric.

OcNOS-DC targets AI scale-out networks carrying RoCEv2 traffic, with congestion-management capabilities including Priority Flow Control, Explicit Congestion Notification, dynamic load balancing and streaming telemetry. IP Infusion describes two-tier topologies that could connect up to 128,000 XPUs, depending on the configuration. Specific Tomahawk 6 hardware qualifications and general availability have not been announced.

Analysis

The move to 102.4 Tbps highlights the role of independent network operating systems in AI data centers. Broadcom supplies forwarding silicon, while OcNOS and other software stacks provide routing, congestion control, telemetry and automation. Hardware-software interoperability still depends on qualification and feature validation. IP Infusion’s planned transition from 400G and 800G to 1.6T makes OcNOS-DC 7.2 availability and performance under AI workloads important next milestones.

Higher-radix Ethernet switching can reduce the number of stages in scale-out GPU cluster fabrics, while RoCEv2 requires coordinated congestion management. Scale-across networking adds transport distances, latency and optical integration considerations. Although IP Infusion’s broader portfolio spans data center and service-provider networking, this Tomahawk 6 announcement concerns planned scale-out switching support rather than a demonstrated scale-across deployment.

Company Profile — IP Infusion