Networking

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The Abstracts

Fibre Channel Technologies: Current and Future

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

The objectives of this tutorial are:

provide the user with a Primer on Fibre Channel based on criteria such as Flexible, Scalable, Speed, Performance, Distance, Node connectivity and Low cost, Communication, Data Overhead, Redundancy, Availability, Failover, and Applicability in SAN (Easy of use)
Project the market outlook and roadmap of Fibre Channel in term how will FC continue to meet customers evolving needs
Faster speeds, Bandwidth/Cost leadership, Investment protection, Additional capabilities, Lower cost solutions, and Simplified solutions (Plug-n-play)
Share what is New in Fibre Channel Standards for Protocols APIs, and Management such as Channel and Fabric Device Management Interface, configuration improvement, Operational Flexibility and Scalability (Storage virtualization, routing architecture, and SATA tunneling), and Security.

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, and the use of Software and Hardware iSCSI initiators and targets will be discussed as will the companion protocols for discovery and security.

Learning Objectives:

The attendees will get the fundamentals of iSCSI
They will understand the various Configurations/environments, and the various companion processes.

Comparing Server I/O Consolidation Solutions: iSCSI, InfiniBand and FCoE

Walter Dey, Gilles Chekroun, and Errol Roberts Download

This tutorial gives an introduction to server I/O consolidation, having one network interface technology, to support IP and storage (Fibrechannel, SCSI) applications. The benefits for the end users are discussed: less cabling, power and cooling. For this 3 solutions, iSCSI, Infiniband and FCoE, we compare features like Infrastructure / Cabling, Protocol Stack, Performance, Operating System drivers and support, Management Tools, Security and best design practises. We also highlight the implications for the Datacenter front end network, bridging / routing in the access / aggregation / core layer, exponential increase in number of MAC and IP addresses.

Learning Objectives:

What is Server I/O consolidation?
What are the server I/O consolidation solutions, and how do they compare; use model, positioning
What are the implications for the datacenter network; best practise design

SAS & SATA Combine to Change the Storage Market

Marty 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, overview of its technical capabilities,how it is designed to interoperate with SATA drives and when combined, how these technologies can be combined to deliver some very compelling storage solutions. Also included will be an update of the new capabilities included in the SAS 2.0 specification.

Ethernet Technology

Sunil Ahluwalia and Manoj Wadekar 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
The audience will learn how Ethernet technology is being enahance to drive the vision of Unified fabric

InfiniBand Technology Overview

Dror Goldenberg Download

The InfiniBand architecture brings fabric consolidation to the data center. Storage networking can concurrently run with clustering, communication and management fabrics over the same infrastructure, preserving the behavior of multiple fabrics. The tutorial provides an overview of the InfiniBand architecture including discussion of High Speed, Low Latency, Channel I/O, QoS scheduling, partitioning, high availability and protocol offload. InfiniBand based storage protocols, iSER (iSCSI RDMA Protocol), NFS over RDMA and SCSI RDMA Protocol (SRP), are introduced and compared with alternative storage protocols, such as iSCSI and FCP. The tutorial further enumerates value-add features that the InfiniBand brings to clustered storage, such as atomic operations and end to end data integrity.

Learning Objectives:

Understand the InfiniBand architecture and feature set
Understand the benefits of InfiniBand for networked storage
Understand the standard InfiniBand storage protocols

FCoE: Fibre Channel Over Ethernet

John Hufferd Download

FCoE is a concept that encapsulates Fibre Channel frames into Ethernet Frames and amalgamates these technologies into a network fabric that can support Fibre Channel protocols and other Ethernet based protocols (such as TCP/IP, UDP/IP etc.). The presentation will show the general FCoE concept and describe how it might be exploited in a Data Center environment and its position with regards to FC and iSCSI. The requirements on the Ethernet Fabric for support of FC protocols will also be shown. The benefits of converged I/O (storage messaging, clustering, etc.) to the Data Center will be discussed. The state of the FCoE protocol (Standards position, probable adoption projections, etc.) will also be presented.

Learning Objectives:

The audience will gain a general understanding of the concept of using a Data Center type Ethernet for the transmission of Fibre Channel protocols
The audience will gain an understanding of the benefits of converged I/O and how a Fibre Channel protocol can share an Ethernet network with other Ethernet based protocols

PCI Express and Storage

Ron Emerick Download

System IO Architectures are now PCI Express. As multi-root IO Virtualization is being defined, shared IO infrastructures are on the horizon. This session describes PCI Express, Single Root and Multi Root IO Virtualization and 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.

Learning Objectives:

Basic knowledge of PCI Express, PCI Express Roadmap, System Root Complexes and IO Virtualization
Expected Industry Roll Out of latest IO Technologies and required Root Complex capabilities
Anticipated Impacts of these Technologies on Storage Environments.
IO Virtualization connectivity possibilities provided by PCI Express.

TCP/IP Optimizations for High Performance WANs

Joseph White Download

This session provides an overview of TCP/IP high performance behavior and optimizations for bulk data transfers in WAN environments. TCP/IP provides the underlying transport for most of the bulk data transfers across wide area networks (WANs) including distance extension for block storage (iSCSI, FCIP, and iFCP), WAN acceleration for local TCP/IP sessions, and wide area file systems (WAFS) acceleration. Knowledge of TCP/IP performance and behavior characteristics in WAN environments is critical for storage networking professionals and administrators. In particular, the effects of high bandwidth, long latency, impaired, and congested networks as well as the TCP/IP modifications or optimizations used to mitigate these effects is critical for optimal deployment of IP storage solutions.

Learning Objectives:

Overview of the use of TCP/IP in storage networking protocols and storage applications
Description of the behavior of TCP/IP in high performance WAN environments including the effects of high bandwidth, long latency, congestion, and network impairment
Summary of TCP/IP modifications and optimizations for bulk transfers in high performance WAN environments