Designing next generation clusters with InfiniBand and 10GE/iWARP: Opportunities and challenges

Clusters with commodity multi-core processors and commodity networking technologies are providing cost-effective solutions for building next generation high-end systems including HPC clusters, servers, parallel file systems and multi-tier data-centers. The talk focus on two emerging networking technologies (InfiniBand and 10 GE/iWARP) and their associated protocols for designing such systems. In this talk, we critically examine the current and future trends of these technologies and their applicability for designing next generation petascale clusters. The talk start with the motivations behind these technologies and then focus on their architectural aspects and applicability to SAN, LAN and WAN-based clusters. Designing next generation clusters with high performance, scalability and RAS (reliability, availability and serviceability) capabilities by using these technologies will be examined. Current and future trends of InfiniBand and iWARP products was highlighted. The emerging OpenFabrics software stack, focusing both these technologies in an integrated manner, was presented. Finally, a set of case studies in designing various clusters with these networking technologies was presented to outline the associated opportunities and challenges.