Virtual TCP offload: Optimizing ethernet overlay performance on advanced interconnects

Zheng Cui; Patrick G. Bridges; John R. Lange; Peter A Dinda

doi:10.1145/2462902.2462912

Virtual TCP offload: Optimizing ethernet overlay performance on advanced interconnects

Zheng Cui, Patrick G. Bridges, John R. Lange, Peter A Dinda

Computer Science

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Ethernet overlay networks are a powerful tool for virtualizing networked applications. Their performance suffers on advanced interconnects such as Infiniband, however, because of differences between the semantics of Ethernet and the underlying network. In this paper, we demonstrate that providing a virtual TCP offload Ethernet device to the guest operating system dramatically improves overlay network performance on advanced interconnects like Infiniband. The virtual offload device enables the overlay system to leverage the semantics and performance characteristics of the underlying network to maximize overlay performance. Our evaluation shows that this approach allows applications to achieve near-native microbenchmark bandwidth and dramatically improved application performance compared to alternative overlay approaches when running on an Ethernet virtual overlay on a QDR Infiniband fabric.

Original language	English (US)
Pages	49-59
Number of pages	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/2462902.2462912
State	Published - 2013
Event	22nd ACM International Symposium on High-Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing, HPDC 2013 - New York, NY, United States Duration: Jun 17 2013 → Jun 21 2013

Other

Other	22nd ACM International Symposium on High-Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing, HPDC 2013
Country/Territory	United States
City	New York, NY
Period	6/17/13 → 6/21/13

Keywords

HPC
infiniband
overlay networks
virtualization

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Software

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10.1145/2462902.2462912

Cite this

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title = "Virtual TCP offload: Optimizing ethernet overlay performance on advanced interconnects",

abstract = "Ethernet overlay networks are a powerful tool for virtualizing networked applications. Their performance suffers on advanced interconnects such as Infiniband, however, because of differences between the semantics of Ethernet and the underlying network. In this paper, we demonstrate that providing a virtual TCP offload Ethernet device to the guest operating system dramatically improves overlay network performance on advanced interconnects like Infiniband. The virtual offload device enables the overlay system to leverage the semantics and performance characteristics of the underlying network to maximize overlay performance. Our evaluation shows that this approach allows applications to achieve near-native microbenchmark bandwidth and dramatically improved application performance compared to alternative overlay approaches when running on an Ethernet virtual overlay on a QDR Infiniband fabric.",

keywords = "HPC, infiniband, overlay networks, virtualization",

author = "Zheng Cui and Bridges, {Patrick G.} and Lange, {John R.} and Dinda, {Peter A}",

note = "Copyright: Copyright 2013 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.; 22nd ACM International Symposium on High-Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing, HPDC 2013 ; Conference date: 17-06-2013 Through 21-06-2013",

year = "2013",

doi = "10.1145/2462902.2462912",

language = "English (US)",

pages = "49--59",

}

Virtual TCP offload: Optimizing ethernet overlay performance on advanced interconnects. / Cui, Zheng; Bridges, Patrick G.; Lange, John R. et al.
2013. 49-59 Paper presented at 22nd ACM International Symposium on High-Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing, HPDC 2013, New York, NY, United States.

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

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T2 - 22nd ACM International Symposium on High-Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing, HPDC 2013

AU - Cui, Zheng

AU - Bridges, Patrick G.

AU - Lange, John R.

AU - Dinda, Peter A

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - Ethernet overlay networks are a powerful tool for virtualizing networked applications. Their performance suffers on advanced interconnects such as Infiniband, however, because of differences between the semantics of Ethernet and the underlying network. In this paper, we demonstrate that providing a virtual TCP offload Ethernet device to the guest operating system dramatically improves overlay network performance on advanced interconnects like Infiniband. The virtual offload device enables the overlay system to leverage the semantics and performance characteristics of the underlying network to maximize overlay performance. Our evaluation shows that this approach allows applications to achieve near-native microbenchmark bandwidth and dramatically improved application performance compared to alternative overlay approaches when running on an Ethernet virtual overlay on a QDR Infiniband fabric.

AB - Ethernet overlay networks are a powerful tool for virtualizing networked applications. Their performance suffers on advanced interconnects such as Infiniband, however, because of differences between the semantics of Ethernet and the underlying network. In this paper, we demonstrate that providing a virtual TCP offload Ethernet device to the guest operating system dramatically improves overlay network performance on advanced interconnects like Infiniband. The virtual offload device enables the overlay system to leverage the semantics and performance characteristics of the underlying network to maximize overlay performance. Our evaluation shows that this approach allows applications to achieve near-native microbenchmark bandwidth and dramatically improved application performance compared to alternative overlay approaches when running on an Ethernet virtual overlay on a QDR Infiniband fabric.

KW - HPC

KW - infiniband

KW - overlay networks

KW - virtualization

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Y2 - 17 June 2013 through 21 June 2013

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Virtual TCP offload: Optimizing ethernet overlay performance on advanced interconnects

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Keywords

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