CONTENTS

• INTRODUCTION
• TECHNICAL OVERVIEW
– LAYERS
– ELEMENTS
• IO ARCHITECTURES
• ADVANTAGES
• APPLICATIONS
• CONCLUSIONS

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 INTRODUCTION
• InfiniBand is a powerful new architecture
designed to support I/O connectivity for the
Internet infrastructure.

• InfiniBand is supported by all the major

OEM server vendors as a means to expand
beyond and create the next generation I/O
interconnect standard in servers.

• unification of I/O and system area

networking requires a new architecture.

• this major I/O transition support the

Internet’s requirement for RAS: reliability,
availability, and serviceability.
 TECHNICAL OVERVIEW
InfiniBand is a switch-based point-to-point
interconnects architecture developed for today’s
systems with the ability to scale for next generation
system requirements.

Two important sub sections are:

 Layers
 Elements
 LAYERS
The layers of the infiniband include:

 PHYSICAL LAYER

 cables and receptacles for fiber and copper media.

 backplane connectors.
 provides a full duplex connection at 2.5 Gb/s.
 LINK LAYER
The link layer is the heart of the InfiniBand
Architecture.The link layer encompasses:

 Packets
 Data packets
 Management packets

 Switching
 Devices have a 16 bit Local ID (LID)
 forwards packets to the destination using LID

 Credit Based Flow Control

 manage data flow between two point-to-point links
 receiving end of a link supplies credits
 specify the amount of data received without loss of
data.
 NETWORK LAYER

• Handles routing of packets from one subnet

to another

• Contain a Global Route Header (GRH).

 128 bit IPv6 address for the source and
destination

• Do not require the network layer

information and header overhead within the
network layer
 TRANSPORT LAYER

• responsible for in-order packet

delivery,

• partitioning

• channel multiplexing

• transport services
 INFINI BAND ELEMENTS
The InfiniBand includes:

• channel adapter

 connects InfiniBand to other devices

 Host Channel Adapter (HCA)
 Target Channel Adapter (TCA)

• Switch

 contains more than one InfiniBand port

 forwards packets from one port to another based
on the LID
 INFINI BAND ELEMENTS
• Router

 forward packets from one subnet to another

• subnet manager
 configures the local subnet
 Ensures continued operation
 I/O ARCHITECTURES
Shared Bus Architecture
– all communication shares the same
bandwidth

– also have severe electrical, mechanical,

and power issues.

– Several devices can be connected to a

single bus
 SWITCHED FABRIC
– point-to-point switch-based interconnect

– designed for fault tolerance d scalability

– link has exactly one device connected

– provides scalability

– Multiple paths provide fail-safe, redundant

connections
 ADVANTAGES
• Layered Protocol - Physical, Link, Network,
Transport, Upper Layers

• Packet Based Communication

• High quality of Service

• Three Link Speeds

 1X - 2.5 Gb/s, 4 wire
 4X - 10 Gb/s, 16 wires
 12X - 30 Gb/s, 48 wires
 ADVANTAGES
• PCB, Copper and Fiber Cable Interconnect

• Multicast and Unicast Support

• Reliable Transport Methods - Message

Queuing

• Communication Flow Control

 APPLICATIONS
• Application Clustering
Simplifies application cluster
connections by unifying the network
interconnect with a feature-rich
managed architecture.

• Storage Area Networks

groups of complex storage systems
connected by switches
Does not need an expensive, complex
HBA
 APPLICATIONS
• Inter-Processor Communication (IPC)

allows multiple servers to work together

on a single application

provides connection reliability

allowing multiple paths between

systems
 CONCLUSION
• The collective effort of industry leaders has
successfully transitioned InfiniBand from
technology demonstrations to the first real
product deployments.

• include: support for RAS (Reliability, Availability,

and Serviceability) .

• much greater processor performance via Virtual

Interface clustering, greater processor and
memory density .
• The rapid adoption of Infiniband continues and its
being welcomed as more businesses

• consumers utilize the Internet more often and at

higher bandwidths.

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"No matter what you want to do, don't be
nervous (you should not let your muscles
nor your mind be effected by nerves).
Just keep calm.”—BRUCE LEE