InfiniBand is a high-performance interconnect used in high-performance computing. It uses switched fabric topology to allow for high throughput, low latency, and reliability. InfiniBand cables and components allow for data transfer rates from 2 Gbit/s to 120 Gbit/s. It uses a layered architecture including physical, link, network, and transport layers to reliably transfer data. InfiniBand provides superior performance over Ethernet and supports scalability and fault tolerance making it well-suited for high-performance computing environments.

1. PREPARED BY:- SHAH PULKIT
.N.
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2. WHAT IS INFINIBAND..?
• Just as we all are aware of the Ethernet cable popularly know to us as a
Lan cable , similarly there is a fiber optical cable developed for the use
in high-performance computing at places where it is to be dealt with
large amount of data. Such kind of cables are know as InfiniBand.
• This is how a InfiniBand looks like. It
looks same l
like a normal Lan cable. But it’s advance feature f
features makes it different from a Ethernet cable.
c Its features include high throughput
,low latency l o , quality of service and
scalable . failover. It is
designed to b
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3. • InfiniBand specification defines a connection between processor
nodes and high performance I/O nodes such as storage devices.
• InfiniBand host bus adapters and network switches are manufactured
by Mellanox and Intel .
• InfiniBand offers point-to-point bidirectional serial links intended for
the connection of processors with high-speed peripherals such as
disks.
• The actual data transfer rate in InfiniBand varies from 2 Gbit/s for a
normal 1x adapter to 120 Gbit/s for a 12x adapter.
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4. HISTORY OF INFINIBAND
• To overcome the slow data handling process InfiniBand (System I/O) were
developed.
• In 1999 merging up of two competing designs originated the InfiniBand.
Future I/O, developed by Compaq, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard.
Next Generation I/O developed by Intel, Microsoft, and Sun.
• As of 2009 InfiniBand has become a popular interconnect enterprise
datacenters.
• In 2008 Oracle’s HP Oracle Database Machine which utilized InfiniBand for all
IO operations
• In 2009, IBM’s DB2 servers communicated with each other over an InfiniBand
interconnect.
• In 2010, network storage manufacturers increasingly adopt InfiniBand for
modern network storage
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5. ARCHITECTURE OF INFINIBAND
• Defines multiple devices for
system communication:
channel adapter, switch,
router, and a subnet manager
• At least one channel adapter is
required for each end node
• Subnet Manager sets up and
maintains link
• Channel adapters and switches
contains Subnet Management
Agent(SMA) for handling
communication with the subnet
manager
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6. I/O ARCHITECTURE OF
INFINIBAND
• A switch-based serial I/O interconnect architecture.
• InfiniBand uses a switched fabric topology, as opposed
to a hierarchical switched network like
traditional Ethernet architectures. All transmissions
begin or end at a "channel adapter." Each processor
contains a host channel adapter (HCA) and each
peripheral has a target channel adapter (TCA). These
adapters can also exchange information for security
or quality of service (QoS).
• It can be said that the switched fabric architecture used
by InfiniBand is far better then shared bus architecture
used by other data transmission devices.
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7. InfiniBand uses switched fabric architecture and thus has the features
shown above.it can handle large amount of data thus it is scalable, it
switches to standby computer during fault, and is totally reliable.
Features Fabric Bus
Topology Switched Shared
Pin count Low High
No of end points Many Few
Reliability Yes No
Scalable Yes No
Fault tolerant Yes No
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8. SWITCHED FABRIC I/O ARCHITECTURE
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Switched fabric is a network topology where network nodes connect with each other via
one or more network switches. Switched fabrics can offer better total throughput than
broadcast networks because traffic is spread across multiple physical links. Fiber Channel, Is
a high-speed network technology (commonly running at 2-, 4-, 8- and 16-gigabit per second r
primarily used to connect computer data storage.

9. INFINIBAND CABLE AND COMPONENTS
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1X
2.5
(5/10)
Gbs
4X
10
(20/40)
Gbs
12X
30
(60/120)
Gbs
Parallel Optics IB 4X
Connector
Optical to Copper Smart
Module
4X Copper
connector

10. LAYERS OF INFINIBAND
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11. PHYSICAL LAYER LINK LAYER
• Defines both electrical and
mechanical characteristics for the
system
• Includes cables and switches for
fiber and copper media, backplane
connectors.
• Defines three link speeds,
1X,4X,12X
• Each individual link is a 4-wire
differential bi-directional
connection that provides a full
duplex connection at 2.5 Gb/s
• Encompasses packet layout, point-
to-point operations, and switching
within a local subnet
• Packets- Two types: Management
and Data packets
1. Management Packets- Used for
link configuration and
maintenance
2. Data Packets- Carry up to 4k
bytes of a transaction payload
• Switching- Devices within a subnet
have a 16-bit Local ID assigned by
the subnet manager. This LID is
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12. NETWORK LAYER TRANSPORT
LAYER
• Handles routing of packets from
one subnet to another(within a
subnet a network layer is not
required)
• Packets contain a global route
header(GRH)
• GRH contains the 128-bit IPv6
address for the source and
destination of the packets.
• Responsible for in-order packet
delivery, channel multiplexing
and transport services
• Also handles transaction data
segmentation when sending,
and reassembly when receiving
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13. PROS & CONS OF INFINIBAND
• Superior performance
• Low-latency
• High-efficiency
• Fabric consolidation and low
energy usage
• Reliable, stable connections
• Data Integrity
• Highly interoperable
environment
• Complex in design
• Few platforms supports it as yet
• Bleeding edge, for now, so users
will need to perform extensive
testing
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14. CONCLUSION
• Greater processor performance
• Supports RAS (Reliability, availability, Serviceability)
• Works both in-the-box and enables Bandwidth Out of the Box
• Supports scalability
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15. REFERENCES
1. InfiniBand Trade Association www.infinibandta.org
2. InfiniBand Network Architecture, MindShare, Inc.
By
Tom Shanley
3. InfiniBand Architecture, Development and Deployment: A strategic guide to server
I/O solutions By
William T. Futral
4. QoS in InfiniBand Sub networks:
Alfaro,F.J.; Sanchez, J.L.; Duato, J.; Department de
Informatica, Univ. de Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete, Spain
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16. THANK YOU
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