Title :
Performance evaluation of communication networks for distributed computing
Author_Institution :
Comput. Sci. Corp., NASA Ames Res. Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA
Abstract :
We present performance results for several high-speed networks in distributed computing environments. These networks are: HiPPI, ATM, Fibre Channel, IBM Allnode switch, FDDI, and Ethernet. These networks are parts of two testbeds: DaVinci-a cluster of 16 SGI R8000 workstations at NASA Ames-and LACE-a cluster of 96 IBM RS6000 workstations at NASA Lewis. Also, an IBM SP2 machine is considered for comparison. Several communication tests are performed and the results are presented for two programming levels: BSD socket programming interface using the program ttcp and PVM message passing library. These results show that the emerging network technologies can achieve reasonable performance under certain conditions. However, the achievable performance is still far behind the theoretical peak rates
Keywords :
FDDI; asynchronous transfer mode; local area networks; message passing; network interfaces; performance evaluation; transport protocols; workstations; ATM; BSD socket programming interface; DaVinci; Ethernet; FDDI; Fibre Channel; HiPPI; IBM Allnode switch; IBM RS6000 workstations; IBM SP2 machine; LACE; NASA Ames; NASA Lewis; PVM message passing library; SGI R8000 workstations; communication networks; communication tests; distributed computing; high speed networks; peak rates; performance evaluation; performance results; programming levels; testbeds; ttcp program; Asynchronous transfer mode; Communication networks; Communication switching; Distributed computing; High-speed networks; NASA; Optical fiber communication; Optical fiber testing; Switches; Workstations;
Conference_Titel :
Computer Communications and Networks, 1995. Proceedings., Fourth International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Las Vegas, NV
Print_ISBN :
0-8186-7180-7
DOI :
10.1109/ICCCN.1995.540159
