Chelsio Demonstrates 100Gb/s NVMe Over Fabrics Performance

Chelsio Communications, Inc. announced the results of a demonstration of NVMe over Fabrics using the T6 100GbE iWARP RDMA silicon.

Click to enlarge

The demonstration is based on software conforming to the specification of NVMe over Fabrics as defined by the NVM Express, Inc.

NVMe provides a standards-based approach for PCIe SSD access that improves performance by reducing latency and streamlining the command set, while providing support for security and end-to-end data protection. NVMe over Fabrics defines an efficient mechanism to utilize these devices in large scale storage deployments and provides investment protection by allowing the innovations in low latency SSD flash to be used over Ethernet iWARP (RDMA/TCP) networking. This enables the NVMe storage devices to be shared, pooled and managed more effectively.

The company’s demonstration is aimed at providing a foundation for lower latency and increased performance, while providing improved iWARP integration for flash-based storage.

With its T6 100GbE iWARP solution, which can reliably operate with Ethernet Pause frames disabled, and which only adds approximately twelve microseconds of remote NVMe access latency relative to local NVMe access, the firm demonstrates that accessing flash remotely does not need to come at the expense of performance, scalability or error recovery. The T6 100GbE Unified Wire offering enables a migration path from 10/40GbE to 400GbE in the future, while offering the flexibility to leverage existing software investments. In addition, 100Gb iSCSI capability of the T6 silicon allows an instant path to revenues for customers into an existing market. Customer will not need to choose between iSCSI and NVMe Fabrics when it comes to the choice of the adapter or switch.

Firm’s iWARP technology inherits the resilience and congestion management capabilities of TCP/IP and as such can turn any Ethernet topology into a resilient fabric. Unlike competing technologies, it does not require a lossless fabric or special switch features to operate. Therefore, end users can decouple the storage and switch upgrade cycles, and benefit from incremental installs. Storage vendors in turn can deploy into any pre-existing Ethernet infrastructure.

Using 100GbE iWARP, storage system OEMs and device vendors can add the latest generation of Ethernet fabric connectivity to any existing NVMe device. NVMe over Fabrics enables end-users to connect remote subsystems with flash appliances, leveraging 100GbE RDMA/TCP technology to achieve extreme application response times and scalability across virtual datacenters. The complete T6 100GbE iWARP NVMe over Fabrics benchmark paper, detailing the hardware/software configuration used and results achieved, is available here. A video of the demonstration is available here.

“The new T6 100GbE controller enables the development of next generation flash-optimized storage enabling applications to achieve the highest system performance and utilization, while maximizing return-on-investment,” said Kianoosh Naghshineh, CEO, Chelsio. “NVME over Fabrics requires sharing of flash storage across multiple applications using the most efficient, highest-performance networking available. We view T6 iWARP-enabled storage solutions to be a critical tool in meeting these business goals.”

“Maximizing application performance and efficiency of server CPUs are critical priorities for datacenter environments,” said Harvey Newman, physics’ professor, Caltech. “The Chelsio NVMe over Fabrics 100GbE iWARP demonstration provides clear validation of how high-performance NVMe solid state drives can help datacenters get the most out of their infrastructure assets, maximize performance and improve cost-of-ownership at the same time.“