Multi-Port NIC Indirect Hypercube Data Center Network
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional datacenter networks, such as fat-tree networks, often suffer from oversubscription, leading to insufficient bandwidth and increased latency due to the sharing of network resources among multiple hosts, which limits overall network performance and reliability.
Innovation Solution
The introduction of an indirect generalized hypercube topology, where each host is equipped with a multi-port network interface controller (NIC) to connect to both the existing fat-tree network and a nearby host, forming a hierarchical tree of G-cubes that increases bandwidth, reduces latency, and enhances reliability by providing abundant path diversity and utilizing stranded bandwidth.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If oversubscription is used to reduce network cost, then aggregate host injection bandwidth exceeds network capacity, but bandwidth per host is reduced and latency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The network is segmented into multiple indirect G-cube subnetworks, each handling a subset of hosts. This segmentation allows each segment to provide dedicated bandwidth to its hosts while the aggregate of all segments achieves high total bandwidth. The multi-port NIC divides network traffic into segments that can be routed through different paths in the indirect G-cube topology.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a traditional flat network topology to a multi-dimensional indirect G-cube topology. This dimensional change creates multiple routing dimensions and paths between hosts, enabling traffic to be distributed across diverse routes. The multi-port NIC exploits this dimensional structure by selecting different ports for different traffic flows, achieving both high bandwidth and low latency simultaneously.
2Quantity of substance
If oversubscription is used to reduce network cost, then aggregate host injection bandwidth exceeds network capacity, but latency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The network is segmented into multiple indirect G-cube subnetworks, each handling a subset of hosts. This segmentation allows each segment to provide dedicated bandwidth to its hosts while the aggregate of all segments achieves high total bandwidth. The multi-port NIC divides network traffic into segments that can be routed through different paths in the indirect G-cube topology.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a traditional flat network topology to a multi-dimensional indirect G-cube topology. This dimensional change creates multiple routing dimensions and paths between hosts, enabling traffic to be distributed across diverse routes. The multi-port NIC exploits this dimensional structure by selecting different ports for different traffic flows, achieving both high bandwidth and low latency simultaneously.
3Device complexity
If conventional fat-tree topology is used, then network structure is simple, but path diversity is limited and reliability is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a traditional flat network topology to a multi-dimensional indirect G-cube topology. This dimensional change creates multiple routing dimensions and paths between hosts, enabling traffic to be distributed across diverse routes. The multi-port NIC exploits this dimensional structure by selecting different ports for different traffic flows, achieving both high bandwidth and low latency simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The network dynamically selects routing paths based on current conditions. The multi-port NIC can adaptively choose which ports to use for different traffic flows, and the indirect G-cube topology provides dynamic path selection capabilities. This dynamic behavior increases reliability by allowing the network to reroute traffic around failures or congestion points.
Data Source
AI summary
The exemplary embodiments provide an indirect hypercube topology for a datacenter network. The indirect hypercube is formed by providing each host with a multi-port network interface controller (NIC). One port of the NIC is connected to a fat-tree network while another port is connected to a peer host forming a single dimension of an indirect binary n-cube. Hence, the composite topology becomes a hierarchical tree of cubes. The hierarchical tree of cubes topology uses (a) the fat-tree topology to scale to large host count and (b) the indirect binary n-cube topology at the leaves of the fat-tree topology for a tightly coupled high-bandwidth interconnect among a subset of hosts.