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U.S. Department of Energy
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Communication Software Performance for Linux Clusters with Mesh Connections

Conference ·
OSTI ID:812092

Recent progress in copper based commodity Gigabit Ethernet interconnects enables constructing clusters to achieve extremely high I/O bandwidth at low cost with mesh connections. However, the TCP/IP protocol stack cannot match the improved performance of Gigabit Ethernet networks especially in the case of multiple interconnects on a single host. In this paper, we evaluate and compare the performance characteristics of TCP/IP and M-VIA software that is an implementation of VIA.In particular, we focus on the performance of the software systems for a mesh communication architecture and demonstrate the feasibility of using multiple Gigabit Ethernet cards on one host to achieve aggregated bandwidth and latency that are not only better than what TCP provides but also compare favorably to some of the special purpose high-speed networks. In addition, implementation of a new M-VIA driver for one type of Gigabit Ethernet card will be discussed.

Research Organization:
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-84ER40150
OSTI ID:
812092
Report Number(s):
JLAB-07-03-58; DOE/ER/40150-2515
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English