IL Interop

The IBTA boasts one of the industry’s top compliance and interoperability programs, which provides device and cable vendors the opportunity to test their products for compliance with the InfiniBand architecture specification as well as interoperability with other InfiniBand and RoCE products. The IBTA Integrators’ List program produces two lists, the InfiniBand Integrators’ List and the RoCE Interoperability List, which are updated twice a year following bi-annual plugfests.

We’re pleased to announce that the results from Plugfest 29 are now available on the IBTA Integrators’ List webpage, while Plugfest 30 results will be made available in the coming weeks. These results are designed to support data center managers, CIOs and other IT decision makers with their planned deployment of InfiniBand and RoCE solutions in both small clusters and large-scale clusters of 1,000 nodes or more.

Changes for Plugfest 31

IBTA Plugfest 31, taking place April 17-28 at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab, is just around the corner and we are excited to announce some significant updates to our testing processes and procedures. These changes originated from efforts at last year’s plugfests and will be fully implemented onsite for the first time at Plugfest 31.

Changes:

  1. We will no longer be testing QDR but we are adding HDR (200 GHz) testing.
  2. Keysight VNA testing is now performed using a 32 port VNA to enable testing of all 8 lanes.
  3. Software Forge (SFI) has developed all new MATLAB code that will allow real time processing of the 32 port s-parameter files generated by the Keysight VNA. This allows us to test and post process VNA results in less than 2 minutes per cable.
  4. Anritsu, Keysight and Software Forge have teamed together to bring hardware and software solutions that allow for real time VNA & ATD testing. This allows direct vendor participation and validation during the Plugfest.

Benefits:

  1. Anritsu and Keysight bring the best leading edge equipment to the Plugfest twice per year.
    1. See the Methods of Implementation for details.
  2. The IBTA also has access to SFI software that allows the Plugfest engineers to post process the results in real time. Therefore we are now able to do real time interactive testing and debugging while your engineers are at the Plugfest.
  3. We are offering a dedicated guaranteed 5 hour time slot for each vendor to debug and review their test results. Additional time will be available but will be allocated during the Plugfest after all vendors are allocated the initial 5 hours. See the registration to choose your time slot.
  4. Arbitration will occur during the Plugfest and not afterwards. This is because we only have access to the EDR and HDR test equipment at the bi-annual IBTA Plugfests.
  5. Results from the IBTA Plugfest will now be available much more quickly since the post processing time has been reduced so dramatically.
  6. We are strongly encouraging vendors to send engineers to this event so that you can compare your results with ours and do any necessary debugging and validation. This interactive debugging and testing opportunity is the best in any of the high speed industries and is provided to you as part of your IBTA Membership. Please take advantage of it.
  7. We will be providing both InfiniBand and RoCE Interoperability testing at PF31.

Interested in attending IBTA Plugfest 31? Registration can be completed on the IBTA Plugfest page. The March 20 registration deadline is fast approaching, so don’t delay!