The RoCE Initiative is committed to increasing RDMA awareness among system architects and IT managers that design, deploy and operate Ethernet-based data centers. A pillar of our educational program is the Resource Library, which contains a growing list of RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) whitepapers as well as a glossary of relevant industry terms associated with the technology. Experts from InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA) member companies generously provided materials to help explain the many benefits and applications of RoCE.
As a general introduction to the library, I’ve summarized our current collection of technical papers:
External Storage Solution for HP ProLiant Moonshot Servers via iSCSI – HP
This whitepaper outlines some key configurations to deliver an external storage solution for HP ProLiant Moonshot Server Cartridges over iSCSI, including RoCE utilization. It describes the advantages of RDMA, including its ability to move data from the memory of one computer directly into the memory of another computer with minimal involvement from their CPUs. Additionally, the paper explains the protocol’s capability to allow a system to place the communicated data directly into its final memory destination without any additional or interim data copies, which provides an efficient network communication between systems.
Access the full paper here.
Soft-RoCE: RDMA Transport in a Software Implementation – The RoCE Initiative
Serving as the counterpart to hardware-based RoCE solutions is Soft-RoCE, a software implementation of the RDMA transport that offers unique advantages when deploying RDMA technology and meets the demand for efficient data movement. The RoCE Initiative’s first whitepaper outlines the real-world uses cases of Soft-RoCE, which includes working with simple Ethernet adapters to connect servers to high-performance storage units that utilize hardware-based RoCE.
Access the full paper here.
Best Practices for Deployments Using DCB and RoCE – Cisco and Emulex
This technical paper from Cisco and Emulex provides an overview of converged networks with a focus on technologies that enable RoCE, which is ideal for high-performance and cluster deployments. Furthermore, it contains best practices for lossless network design and presents performance data that supports the business case to justify RoCE deployments. With 10GbE deployments and faster networks, data centers can realize the benefits of RDMA using a converged, high-performance infrastructure that supports TCP/IP, RDMA and storage traffic concurrently.
Access the full paper here.
RoCE in the Data Center – Mellanox Technologies
Mellanox makes the enterprise case for RoCE implementations in this white paper, highlighting the technology’s ability to boost data center efficiency and data delivery performance while reducing overall complexity. The company explains RDMA’s roots in InfiniBand fabrics and why the benefits of low-latency and greater CPU utilization make it attractive to today’s Ethernet systems that leverage solid-state storage. Lastly, the paper discusses the latest version of RoCE, RoCEv2, and how it enables RDMA across both L2 and L3 networks.
Access the full paper here.
We encourage you to check back frequently as we continue to add more RoCE whitepapers and other educational materials.
Note: RoCE is the standard for RDMA over Ethernet developed by the IBTA.