Facebook has announced that it has received Open Compute Project's approval for its 100-gigabit switch design. The new switch called Wedge 100 is part of Open Compute Project (OCP), which aims to make computing hardware "open source."

Facebook currently uses Wedge 40 switch for its data centers. The Open Compute Project was started by Facebook.

The new 32 port Wedge 100 is the successor to Wedge 40, which was introduced two years ago. The new switch, as the name implies, can handle 100 gigabits per second per port. Omar Baldonado, director of software engineering on Facebook's networking team, said that new switches would help the company meet the higher demands generated by bandwidth-intensive applications such as Facebook Live. The company has started rolling out new switches for its data centers.

Facebook is likely to benefit from the new switch as it would reduce the company's dependence on the manufacturers. Baldonado stated that it would also enable Facebook to keep up with the accelerated software update plans. Facebook aims to update its switch software weekly.

The Wedge 100 also features a more user-friendly design which makes it easier for employees to use the switch. Its design is easy to pull apart for proper maintenance, field replacement and debugging.

100Gbps switches are already available on the market. These switches are offered by various companies including Cisco and Arista. Companies are also working on developing appropriate software for such systems, to ensure that the switches can provide optimal performance. SnapRoute is one such startup which has developed FlexSwitch software for the device.