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Modeling tree-structured I2C communication to study the behavior of a dielectric coolant in a two-phase immersion cooling system

Abstract:

The appearance of two-phase immersion cooling systems enables the deployment of small, low-consumption edge data centers. However, the characterization of dielectric coolants requires a monitoring, modeling and simulation framework that allows their study under different topologies and computing profiles. We propose the use of heaters to mimic different computing devices and temperature sensors to model the coolant. By arranging the controllable heaters in customizable 3D topologies, we build a system that allows the generation of sensorized dynamic and heterogeneous load profiles. We select I2C, available in inexpensive controllers, to communicate with the heaters and sensors. I2C shows practical limitations regarding the number of devices that can be connected to a bus. We propose a tree-based network protocol, where intermediate nodes route messages to the leaves, using the two I2C interfaces of the microcontrollers. This paper models the proposed communication schemes and analyses its limits for the simulation of various scenarios.