The Definitive Guide toAI Data Centers
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GuideGlossaryOversubscription

Oversubscription

Provisioning less network bandwidth than full non-blocking would require; 1:1 is non-blocking, 3:1 is oversubscribed.

Current numbers

~21% vs ~3%power-oversubscription headroom: inference (uncorrelated per-request peaks) vs training (synchronous peaks)as of 2024 · register ↗
~31%back-end fabric cost avoided with 2:1 oversubscription (virtual-modular-switch design) vs the non-oversubscribed reference — where the workload allows (contested — single-source)as of 2024 · register ↗
~3% vs ~21%power-budget headroom oversubscription, training vs inference fleetsas of 2024 · register ↗

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