Networking

The Abstracts

Networking Technologies:  Concepts in Internal and External Networked Storage

Howard Goldstein Download

This tutorial explains the fundamental concepts and protocols of networking for the storage professional. It compares the issues facing networks vs. storage. It identifies the differences between DAS, NAS and SAN and the benefits each bring to storage. It introduces network concepts showing examples of how these concepts apply in storage network technologies. It compares and contrasts the similarities and differences of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI), The Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) and Fibre Channel technologies. It discusses network concepts such as naming vs. addressing, flow control, circuit vs. packet switching, “routering” vs. switching, hardware offload performance factors and others. Finally, we identify the presenter’s ilk as the ultimate “semantic ANALyst”, the role of indiscriminate misuse of terminology in storage networking and the confusion it can bring to the market.

IP Storage Protocols - iSCSI

John Hufferd Download

This tutorial will explain the fundamentals of iSCSI and explain deployments in various environments. The protocol is explained, its relationship to SCSI is explained, the use of Software and Hardware iSCSI initiators and targets will be discussed as will the companion protocols for discovery, and security.

Fibre Channel Technologies: Current and Future

M. K. Jibbe, Steven Wilson, Tom Hammond-Doel Download

The objectives of this tutorial are to calibrate user on what Fibre Channel can provide today; to project the market outlook of Fibre Channel, and to share what is the Fibre Channel Horizon

Learning Objectives

• To calibrate user on what Fibre Channel can provide today: 1) Topologies supported, 2) Flexibility, and Scalability, 3) Speed 4) Maximum Distance, 5) Max nodes, 6) Communication and Data Overhead (Framing, 7) Congestion Control, Access Control, Latency, and Efficiency), 8) Redundancy, Availability, and Failover, 9) Serviceability, Security (Control, Authentication, and Encryption), 10) Application Workloads and Performance, 11) Applicability in SAN (Easy of use), and, 12) IT Professional User Base 13) Cost
• To project the market outlook of Fibre Channel. FC has been the major storage system interconnect since the mid 90s. FC now dominates the SAN and external storage market place with over 90% market share. How will FC continue to meet customers' evolving needs? Faster speeds, Bandwidth/Cost leadership, Investment protection, Additional capabilities, Lower cost solutions, Simplified solutions (Plug-n-play)
• To share what is the Fibre Channel Horizon? New Fibre Channel Standards for Protocols, APIs, and Management Fibre Channel. Easier and More Secure than Ever!

SAS & SATA Combine to Change the Storage Market

Martin Czekalski and Harry Mason Download

Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) allows systems to be built that accommodate large numbers of either SAS and/or SATA hard disk drives. This presentation, intended for OEM, System Builders and End-Users, describes the capabilities of the SAS interface, how it’s designed to interoperate with SATA drives and when combined, how these technologies can be combined to deliver some very compelling storage solutions.

PCI Express, Infiniband and Storage

Ron Emerick and Paul Millard Download

System IO Architectures are changing to PCI Express, 10 GbE and Infiniband. As multi-root IO Virtualization is being defined, shared IO infrastructures are on the horizon. This session discusses the impacts of all these changes on storage connectivity, storage transfer rates, as well as the implications to Storage Industry and Data Center Infrastructures.

This tutorial will provide the attendee with:

• Basic knowledge of PCI Express and Infiniband Technologies, System Root Complexes and IO Virtualization.
• Anticipated Impacts (benefits and exposures) of these Technologies on Storage Environments.
• IO Virtualization connectivity possibilities provided by PCI Express. Expected Industry Roll Out of these IO Technologies.

Metropolitan and Wide area Storage Networks

Stephen Barr Download

Distance is essential to support business continuity, compliance, and consolidation. This session is targeted to Storage Networking Professionals who desire an overview of available techniques and technologies that overcome storage networking distance boundaries.

This session will demystify Metro/Wide Area Networking by providing participants with a working-level understanding of:

1. Distance drivers, performance, protocols for Disk Mirroring (Synch/Asynch)/Clustering, remote disk and tape backup;
2. Techniques that optimize throughput including flow control and data compression;
3. Available transport technologies including SONET/SDH, CWDM, DWDM, IP, Metro Ethernet and dark fiber with the pro's and con's of each;
4. Selecting the appropriate technology to meet different requirements with case studies.

Ethernet Technology

Allen Light Download

A key challenge that the network and storage industries are now facing is the abundance of new high speed interconnect protocols proposed for future data center applications. What customers really want is to reduce the number of disparate networks and minimize the complexity surrounding the management of their data centers. In this presentation we take a peek into what the future may hold for high speed fabrics and investigate the potential for their unification. We will provide a market and technical overview of the competitive landscape for next generation 10Gb technologies with particular focus on the operational characteristics and implementation aspects of Ethernet. Also we will postulate as to how fabric unification may continue to evolve. Attendees will gain an insight into the pragmatic issues surrounding the deployment and management of connectivity infrastructure as we move towards the data center of the future.

The audience will learn how hardware, software, standards and innovation are all needed to derive the vision of a unified fabric utilizing 10GE for the data center of the future. The unification of fabrics is not an all or nothing approach. There is a clearly defined unified fabric sweet spot within a data center. The audience will learn to identify and assess if this approach is right for their data center and business level objectives. In this session you will learn the differences between reactive innovation vs proactive innovation and how it applies to 10G, Acceleration, OS virtualization, HW virtualization and the evolution of storage fabrics.

Learning Objectives
The audience will learn the basic fundamentals of Ethernet and 10Gb.

SAS Overview

Manu Gupta Download

Pre-requisite for this session: 1. 'SAS SATA Combine to Change Storage Market presentation by Martin Czekalski and Harry Mason available at:
/education/tutorials

This session explores the various aspects of SAS Architecture and SAS Transport Protocols. It starts with background of parallel SCSI and explain how SAS evolved with time. It elaborates the SAS point-to-point Architecture along with SAS Discovery Process. It also discusses SAS frame exchange sequence between Initiator and Target. 1. SAS Evolution 2. SAS Architecture, SAS Devices (End Device, Expander), SAS Addressing (Narrow Port, Wide Port), SAS Domain & Expander Topologies - Connections 3. Transport Protocols - Serial Management Protocol (SMP) - SMP Request Frames - SMP Response Frames, SAS Discovery Process, Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP), SSP Frames, Information Units (IU), Serial ATA Tunneled Protocol (STP), FIS Note: 1. The scope of this presentation is limited to SAS Transport Protocols. 2. The discussion on SAS Physical Layer and SAS Link Layer are beyond the scope of this presentation. 3. The presentation is based on SAS-2 (Working Draft American National Standard) - Project T10/1760D. 4. This presentation will have about 30 slides. The duration of this presentation will be 45-60 minutes.

Target Audience

• Technical Architects
• Technical Specialists
• Storage Protocol Stack Developers
• OEMs

TCP/IO Optimization for Block Storage

Joseph White Download

With all of the interest in using IP storage for servers, business continuance, and disaster recovery, the various IP storage protocols such as iSCSI, iFCP, and FCIP have gained increasing attention from storage networking professionals and administrators. TCP/IP provides the transport for these upper level protocols. Knowledge of TCP/IP and how it applies to block storage and bulk data transfers is critical for optimal deployment of IP storage solutions. This session will provide an overview of TCP/IP and its use in transporting block storage. The primary focus will be on the behavior of the TCP/IP layer itself. The session will review the effects of latency, packet drops, congestion, and high bandwidth links, as well as provide a discussion of block data transport optimizations and TCP improvements to mitigate these effects.

Learning Objectives

• TCP/IP Protocol and Behavior Overview
• Exploration of specific TCP/IP modifications for use with block storage
• Overview of FCP specific acceleration techniques such as write command acceleration and tape acceleration by gateway devices