TWI767748B - 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 sensing network and related gas flow control method

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

The operation of the existing data center requires a lot 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 conditioners, fans, cold water supply pumps) and so on. Power usage efficiency (PUE) of existing data centers can be used as an indicator. Power usage efficiency is the ratio of total electricity consumption to information equipment electricity consumption (ie, PUE=total electricity consumption/ Information equipment 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 cooling equipment is zero, which is a 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 of a conventional data center. As shown in FIG. 1, the computer room configuration 10 may include a cabinet server 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 device CI, and the hot aisle isolation device HI are used to manage air flow, so as to reduce the hot air return from the cabinet server 102 outlet. recirculation and reduce cold air leakage at the inlet of the rack server 102 . However, during the actual operation of the data center, although the cold aisle isolation device CI and the hot aisle isolation device HI can increase the efficiency of gas flow circulation, they also cause the gas flow required by the rack server 102 to be different from the gas flow provided by the cold aisle isolation device CI. The flow does not match, resulting in the pressure difference between the inlet and outlet of the rack server 102, resulting in local hot air backflow or cold air overflow. In addition, the electricity consumption of the cooling equipment in the existing data center accounts for about 30% of the total electricity consumption. above.

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

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

An embodiment of the present invention discloses a wireless sensing network used in a cabinet device of a data center, wherein the cabinet device includes a plurality of servers, the wireless sensing network includes a host system; a wireless coordination device , coupled to the main system, including a coordination communication module; and a plurality of wireless terminal devices, connected with the wireless coordination device by a wireless connection, wherein the plurality of wireless terminal devices are respectively arranged in the plurality of servers of the cabinet device , and each wireless terminal device includes a communication module for communicating with the wireless coordination device; a sensing module for sensing an inlet temperature and an outlet temperature of a server, and the inlet temperature and the outlet temperature are sent to the communication module; and an actuation module coupled to a fan device for adjusting the rotation speed of the fan device according to a rotation 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; send the sensed inlet temperature and outlet temperature of each server 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 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 predetermined value, the rotation speed of the fan device corresponding to the first server is increased.

10: Computer room configuration

102: Cabinet Server

30: Wireless sensor network

302: Main System

304: Wireless Coordination Device

3042: Coordinate Communication Module

306_1-306_6: Wireless terminal device

3062: Communication Module

3064: Sensing Module

3066: Actuator Module

308: Circulation fan wireless terminal device

3082: Circulation fan communication module

3084: Circulating Fan Sensing Module

3086: Circulation Fan Actuator Module

3088: Circulation Fan Unit

70: Gas flow control method

702-712: Steps

CI: Cold Aisle Isolation Equipment

CRAC: air-conditioning equipment

DC: Data Center

HI: Hot Aisle Isolation Equipment

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 unit

RF: Raised Floor

S_1-S_6,S_1'-S_6': Server

SUI: Thermal indicator

Tinrack: Average value of inlet temperature for each server

Tourrack: Average of outlet temperature of each server

Tref: cold air intake temperature

VI: Ventilation channel

Figures 1 and 2 are a top view and a side view of a computer room configuration of an existing data center, respectively.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a wireless sensing 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 a cabinet device according to an 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.

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

In an embodiment, the wireless coordination device 304 of the wireless sensing network 30 and each wireless terminal device 306_1-306_6 of the embodiment of the present invention can be implemented by using the ATmega 2560 microcontroller developed by Arduino, and the coordination of the wireless coordination 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 structure, namely One wireless coordination device 304 and multiple wireless terminals Network topology of devices 306_1-306_6.

Specifically, the wireless coordination device 304 of the wireless sensing network 30 according to the embodiment of the present invention communicates with the host system 302 through the coordination communication module 3042 to determine the corresponding temperature according to the inlet temperature and outlet temperature corresponding to each server. The rotational 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 coordination device 304 The system 302, and when the main system 302 determines that the inlet temperature of the server S_2 is higher than a predetermined value, the main system 302 increases the rotational speed of the fan device corresponding to the server. In this case, the host system 302 transmits the rotational speed adjustment information of the wireless terminal device 306_2 to the wireless terminal device 306_2 through the wireless coordination device 304, and the rotation speed of the corresponding fan device is adjusted by the actuation module 3066 of the wireless terminal device 306_2. To quickly eliminate data center DC hot spots.

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

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 described above to adjust the rotation speed of the fan device of the corresponding server, the wireless sensing network 30 of the embodiment of the present invention can also use a circulating fan Wireless end devices 308 eliminate hot spots in the data center DC. Specifically, since the circulating fan wireless terminal device 308 is disposed at the bottom of the cabinet device R, the main system 302 in the embodiment of the present invention can also detect the temperature sensed by the circulating fan wireless terminal device 308 to The inlet temperature and the outlet temperature sensed by the sensing modules 3064 of the wireless terminal devices 306_1-306_6 are used to adjust the rotation speed of the fan device of the corresponding circulating fan wireless terminal device 308 to quickly eliminate the hot spots of the data center DC.

Please refer to FIG. 5 . FIG. 5 is a schematic side view of a cabinet device R according to an embodiment of the present invention. The embodiment of FIG. 5 presents a ventilation channel VI formed by a rack device R and another rack device R' in the data center DC, 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 according to 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 coordination device 304 through a wireless connection, and the circulating fan sensing module 3084 may be a temperature sensor , which is used to sense a cold air intake temperature Tref in a ventilation channel of the data center DC, and transmit the cold air intake temperature Tref to the main system 302 . The circulation fan actuating module 3086 is coupled to the circulation fan device 3088, and is used for adjusting a rotation speed of the circulation fan device 3088 according to a supply heat index (Supply Heat Index, SUI), wherein the heat dissipation index can be expressed by formula (1):

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 host system 302 (through the wireless coordination device 304) according to the ventilation channel The cold air intake temperature Tref, the average value of the inlet temperature of each server, and the average value of the outlet temperature of each server are determined, and then the rotation speed of the circulating fan device of the circulating fan wireless terminal device 308 is determined according to the heat dissipation index SUI. In this way, when the heat dissipation index SUI approaches zero, it means that the average value of the inlet temperature of each server, Tinrack, is approximately equal to the cold air intake temperature Tref, that is to say, there is almost no hot air backflow; When the average value of the inlet temperature of each server (that is, the temperature Tinrack) is greater than the cold air intake temperature Tref, it means that an intake flow rate of the data center DC cannot match the flow rate of the server. The average value of the inlet temperature of a server (ie, the temperature Tinrack) rises. In this case, the host system 302 decides to increase the rotation speed of the circulating fan device to quickly eliminate the hot spot of the data center DC.

In one embodiment, the main system 302 can determine the heat dissipation index SUI and the rotation speed of the circulating fan device of the circulating 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 rotation 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, the temperature Tinrack).

The operation of the wireless sensing network 30 according to 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 the 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 corresponding temperature according to the inlet temperature and outlet temperature corresponding to each server. The rotational speed information of the fan device of each wireless terminal device.

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

Step 712: End.

Regarding the operation process of the gas flow control method 70 , reference may be made to the above-mentioned embodiments of the wireless sensing network 30 , which will not be repeated here.

In this way, the wireless sensing 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 sensing 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 an embodiment of the present invention, the wireless sensing network and the related gas flow control method of the present invention can be applied to a server to improve cooling efficiency, so that the server is suitable for artificial intelligence (AI) computing, edge Computing (Edge Computing), it 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 sensing network according to different system requirements. For example, the number of wireless terminal devices installed in the server, the number of sensing modules installed in the wireless terminal device, and the installation position of the wireless terminal device of the circulating fan are not limited to the bottom of the raised floor, and can be determined according to different requirements. It is within the scope of the present invention to adjust as required, but not limited thereto.

In summary, the present invention provides a wireless sensor network and a related gas flow control method. The wireless sensor network is arranged in a data center to improve the cooling efficiency of the data center and reduce the power consumption of 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.

30: Wireless sensor network

302: Main System

304: Wireless Coordination Device

3042: Coordinate Communication Module

306_1-306_6: Wireless terminal device

3062: Communication Module

3064: Sensing Module

3066: Actuator Module

Claims (7)

A wireless sensing network is used for a cabinet device of a data center, wherein the cabinet device includes a plurality of servers, the wireless sensing network includes: a main system; a wireless coordination device, coupled to the The main system includes a coordination communication module; a plurality of wireless terminal devices are connected with the wireless coordination device by 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 The device includes: a communication module for communicating with the wireless coordination device; a sensing module for sensing an inlet temperature and an outlet temperature of a server, and the inlet temperature and the outlet temperature transmission to the communication module; and an actuation module coupled to a fan device for adjusting the speed of the fan device according to a speed information; and a circulating fan wireless terminal device disposed on a raised floor of the data center , which includes: a circulating fan communication module, used to communicate with the wireless coordination device; a circulating fan sensing module, used to sense the cold air intake temperature of a ventilation channel of the data center, and The cold air intake temperature is sent to the main system; and a circulating fan actuating module is coupled to a circulating fan device for adjusting the rotation speed of the circulating fan device according to a heat dissipation index; wherein the heat dissipation index is determined by the main system The system is determined according to the cold air intake 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 the main system determines the circulating fan wireless according to the heat dissipation index. The rotational speed of the circulating fan unit of the terminal unit. The wireless sensing network of claim 1, wherein the wireless coordinating device is used to communicate with the host system to determine the corresponding wireless sensor according to the inlet temperature and the outlet temperature corresponding to each server. The rotational speed information of the fan device of the terminal device. The wireless sensing network of claim 2, wherein when the inlet temperature of the first server corresponding to one of the plurality of servers is higher than a predetermined value, the host system decides to increase the temperature corresponding to the first server the rotational speed of the fan unit of the device. The wireless sensing network of claim 1, 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, the rotation speed of the circulating fan device is increased. The wireless sensing network of claim 1, wherein the host system determines the heat dissipation index and the circulating fan of the circulating fan wireless terminal device according to a Proportiona-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller The speed of the device. A gas flow control method for a cabinet device of a data center, wherein the cabinet device includes a plurality of servers, and the gas flow control method includes: sensing an inlet temperature and an outlet temperature of each server; Send the sensed inlet temperature and outlet temperature of each server to a communication module of the corresponding wireless terminal device; determine the corresponding temperature of each server according to the inlet temperature and the outlet temperature Speed information of the fan device of the wireless terminal device; adjust the speed of the fan device corresponding to each wireless terminal device according to the speed information; Sensing a cold air intake temperature of a ventilation channel of the data center, and transmitting the cold air intake temperature to a circulating fan communication module of a circulating fan wireless terminal device; according to the cold air intake 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 determine a heat dissipation index; and determine the rotation speed of a 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 rotation speed of the circulating fan device; wherein, the inlet of the first server corresponding to the plurality of servers is When the temperature 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 claimed in claim 6, wherein the heat dissipation index and the rotational speed of the circulating fan device of the circulating fan wireless terminal device are determined according to a proportional-integral-derivative controller.

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