Building Australia’s Sovereign AI Factory: Network Backbone and Interconnects

The Sovereign AI Factory relies on a high‑capacity, low‑latency backbone that securely links Australian data centres and edge sites. This post outlines a practical architecture for multi‑site training and inference that keeps data onshore while meeting strict performance targets.

Backbone Principles

• Dedicated optical wavelengths between sites with QoS for model traffic and control‑plane isolation
• Standards‑based interconnects (RoCE / InfiniBand) for east‑west AI workloads
• Deterministic latency budgets for ≤100ms inference to major capitals
• Path diversity and sovereign routing to avoid foreign jurisdiction exposure

Multi‑Region Design

We recommend a hub‑and‑spoke mesh across NSW and SA initially, expanding to WA, QLD and VIC. Control planes remain regionally isolated with cross‑region replication for resilience.