FIBRE CHANNEL
FCIA
12
A TRILLing subject
A new network protocol, called Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL), is expected to be completed in the second half of 2010, writes Mike McNamara, (right), FCIA Marketing Chair, NetApp and Ahmad Zamer, (far right), FCIA member, Brocade.
Overview of Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) Many IT organizations operate purpose-built multiple networks to connect to servers. Such networks are dedicated to IP networking, shared storage, and for Inter-Process Communication (IPC) for high-performance computing environments (figure 1). Most often overlapping networks contribute to IT organizations added cost in numerous ways; such as additional capital equipment, cable complexity, administrative costs, and additional power and cooling from multiple components.
The concept of I/O consolidation and unification or convergence enables the ability of network adapters, switches, and storage systems to use the same shared Ethernet physical infrastructure to transport different types of protocol traffic.
throughput demands and higher bandwidth utilization
Virtualization aggregates multiple applications and OS instances on a single physical server with each application and OS instance generating significant I/O traffic. This places an overwhelming demand on existing multiport 1GbE infrastructures.
Multi-socket, multi-core server technology supports higher workload levels, which demand greater throughput from IP networking and Fibre Channel Storage Area Network (SAN) interconnections.
Increasing use of network storage requires higher bandwidth links between servers and storage.
For the IT network manager,
I/O consolidation equates to installing, operating and maintaining a single network infrastructure instead of three, while still having the ability to differentiate between traffic types. The data center manager can purchase fewer host bus adapters and NICs, cables, switches, and storage systems, reducing power, equipment, and administrative costs.
Lossless 10-Gibabit Ethernet I/O consolidation and unification promise to support both storage and TCP/IP network traffic on a single network infrastructure. One of the primary enablers of I/O consolidation is lossless 10-Gigabit Ethernet, a technology with bandwidth, data integrity, and latency characteristics sufficient to support multiple traffic flows on the same link. The following factors are driving adoption and the eventual ubiquity of 10GbE as a shared I/O transport: Server virtualization enables application workload consolidation, which contributes to higher network
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Ethernet enhancements – Standards overview For 10GbE to be a strong viable option for server I/O consolidation and storage networking, enhancements must be added to Ethernet to perform functions of other transports and open the door for converging multiple fabrics onto a single shared lossless Ethernet networking transport. The diverse nature of the technologies needed to enable convergence requires the development of several new industry standards that cover Fibre Channel, Ethernet,
Figure 1
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