TCP/IP Inside the Data Center and Beyond

This session provides an overview of TCP/IP high performance behavior for bulk data transfers in LAN, data center, and WAN environments. TCP/IP provides the underlying transport for iSCSI and FCIP. Within the data center understanding TCP/IP is important for converged networks not using FCoE. The effects of various drop patterns, the new Ethernet enhancements for the data center, and TCP/IP processing overhead will be explored. Outside the data center, 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. The effects of high bandwidth, long latency, impaired, and congested networks as well as the TCP/IP modifications to mitigate these effects will be explored. A fundamental understanding of TCP/IP behaviors is essential for successful deployment of IP storage solutions.

Learning Objectives

• Technical Tutorial on TCP/IP Protocols
• Short distance (Intra-Data Center) TCP/IP Behavior
• Long distance (Inter-Data Center) TCP/IP Behavior