High Performance Computing Cluster Interconnect - Extreme Networks

Extreme Networks White Paper: High Performance Computing Cluster InterconnectHPCC is no longer an exclusive solution for the scientificcommunity. As “Big Data Analytics” are required formore businesses, HPCC is being used as a more commercially-orientedsolution. Financial Services, Retail andManufacturing all have the same challenges of analyzingreal time data from many different sources to make realtime decisions. As HPCC becomes more mainstream anda solution is chosen, the cluster interconnect becomesan important decision.As an example, petabytes of unstructured data frominternet applications must now be processed withina short period of time. One approach is the HadoopMapReduce framework along with the HadoopDistributed File System (HDFS), designed to run oncommodity hardware based on Linux. The HPCCsolution is known as a Hadoop Cluster. In a low-latencydeployment, tests have proven that Solid State Disk(SSD) in combination with advanced interconnect like10 GbE, have a significant enhancement to performanceof the cluster.A cluster must have a dedicated cluster interconnect towhich all cluster members are connected. Bandwidthand latency are the most important factors in the overallperformance of the solution. Today, a majority of HPCCinterconnect is Ethernet due to cost effectiveness, ubiquity,and open standards. The most effective solution isbased on a variety of factors such as:• Cost• Cluster availability• Cluster performance• Application requirementsAs 10 GbE and now 40 GbE become a standard inthe data center, more and more clusters are using thetechnology as a Top-of-Rack or End-of-Row architecture,or to connect to the Internet. Extreme Networks offersthe lowest latency with the highest throughput in theindustry, combined with ExtremeXOS®, an extensible andresilient operating system.2© 2012 Extreme Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.