Virtual IP Affinity for Storage Cluster Throughput
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Solution Overview
Problem
Storage clusters face throughput limitations due to fixed outstanding requests per session, and increasing bandwidth requires additional hardware like NICs, leading to unnecessary costs and delays in data management services.
Innovation Solution
Assigning a set of VIPs, including a primary and secondary VIPs, to each node in the storage cluster, allowing clients to communicate in parallel without additional hardware, and migrating these VIPs to maintain continuous communication and reduce latency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If additional NICs are added to nodes to increase throughput and bandwidth, then data transfer performance is improved, but hardware costs and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes existing NICs perform multiple functions by implementing software-defined networking capabilities. The system enables a single NIC to handle multiple virtual network interfaces and communication channels through software configuration, allowing existing hardware to provide increased throughput without adding physical NICs to each node.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates virtual copies of network interfaces through software. By implementing virtual network interfaces that replicate the functionality of physical NICs, the system allows multiple virtual channels to operate over a single physical NIC, effectively multiplying the throughput capacity without requiring additional hardware.
2Productivity
If additional NICs are added to nodes to increase bandwidth, then data transfer capacity is improved, but hardware costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables existing NIC hardware to serve multiple bandwidth channels simultaneously through software-defined networking. By configuring a single NIC to handle multiple virtual interfaces and communication streams, the system achieves increased total bandwidth capacity without procuring additional physical network interface cards.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates multiple virtual network interface copies that can operate in parallel over a single physical NIC. These virtual copies provide additional bandwidth channels, allowing the system to increase data transfer capacity without the need to purchase and install additional physical NIC hardware.
3Productivity
If fixed number of outstanding requests per session is maintained, then connection stability is preserved, but throughput is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the single communication session into multiple virtual channels or sub-sessions. By dividing the overall data transfer into parallel streams across multiple virtual interfaces, the system can maintain the stability of individual connections while achieving higher aggregate throughput through concurrent operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a virtual dimension to the connection model by implementing multiple virtual network interfaces. This allows the system to exceed the fixed outstanding requests limit of a single TCP session by creating additional parallel communication paths in the virtual layer, thereby increasing throughput without compromising connection stability.
Data Source
AI summary
A plurality of virtual internet protocol addresses for a first single network interface card of a node of a storage cluster are provided to a client. A separate connection is established between the client and the node for each of the plurality of virtual internet protocol addresses. The separate connections are utilized together in parallel to transfer data between the client and the node.