Asterfusion Low latency Switch versus InfiniBand Switch,Who win?

In this article, let’s make a comparison of Asterfusion Low latency Switch versus InfiniBand switch in the HPC scenario.

What is High-Performance Computing

High-performance computing (HPC) is the capability of processing data and performing complex calculations at extremely high speeds. For example, a laptop or desktop computer with a 3 GHz processor can perform about 3 billion calculations per second, which is much faster than any human being can achieves, but it still pales in comparison to HPC solutions that can perform trillions of calculations per second.  

The general architecture of HPC is mainly composed of computing, storage, and network. The reason why HPC can improve the computing speed is that it adopts “parallel technology”, using multiple computers to work together, using ten, hundreds, or even thousands of computers, which enables them “working in parallel”. Each computer needs to communicate with each other and process tasks cooperatively, which requires a high-speed network with strict requirements on latency and bandwidth. 

The RDMA mode with high bandwidth, low latency, and low resource utilization (the main architecture: InfiniBand and Ethernet protocols) is often the best choice for HPC networks.  

In HPC Scenario, Asterfusion’s CX-N Low Latency Switch Versus InfiniBand switch

Asterfusion CX-N ultra-low latency switch (CX-N for abbreviation ) adopts standard Ethernet protocol and open software & hardware technology. It supports lossless Ethernet and network lossless anti-congestion technology, which fully meets the high requirements of users for network bandwidth and latency in HPC applications.

Asterfusion Teralynx based low latency switches

To verify this fact, we selected Mellanox’s InfiniBand switch and conducted a comparative test of its operating speed under the same HPC application. We conducted E2E forwarding tests, MPI benchmark tests and HPC application tests on the networks built by Asterfusion CX-N switches and Mellanox MSB7800 switches (IB switches for short).

The results show that the latency peformance of Asterfusion CX-N reaches the same level compare to competator ,and the running speed is only about 3% lower than the competing product, which could satisfy the majority of HPC application scenarios. What needs to be highlighted is that Asterfusion pays more attention to the control of product cost, and that Asterfusion’s HPC solution has significant advantages in terms of Cost performance. (Click for CX-N cloud switches’ quotation bd@cloudswit.ch)

The Whole Process of the HPC Scenario Test :

1. Target and Physical Network Topology

• E2E Forwarding Test

Test the E2E (End to End) forwarding latency and bandwidth of the two switches under the same topology. The test point uses the Mellanox IB packet sending tool to send packets. The test process traverses 2~8388608 bytes.

• MPI Benchmark

The MPI benchmark is often used to evaluate high performance computing performance. This program test point uses OSU Micro-Benchmarks to evaluate the performance of the CX-N cloud switches and IB switches.

• HPC Application Testing

This test scenario runs the same task in each HPC application and compares the operating speed of the CX-N and IB switches (which one takes less time)

1.1 IB Switch Physical Topology

The physical topology of the IB switch of the above solution is shown in Figure 1:

Figure 1: IB switch physical network topology

1.2 CX-N Physical Topology

The CX-N physical topology of the above solution is shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2: CX-N physical network topology

1.3 Management Network Port IP Planning

For more please visit:  https://cloudswit.ch/blogs/asterfusion-low-latency-switch-vesus-infiniband-switchwho-win/

Category _	Model _	Hardware Index	Volume _	Comment
Switch	CX - N	Refer to the introduction of Asterfusion official website	2	-
IB Switch	MSB7800 _	Refer to the introduction of Mellanox official website	2	Mellanox IB Switch
Server _	x86	General computing power is ok	2	Each servers needs to install a Mellanox network card (100G)
Optical Module	100G	QSFP28	8	-
Optical Fiber	Multi-mode	100G applicable	4	-
Optical Cable	MCP1600-E003E26	100G applicable	4	IB Optical Cable
Network Card	MCX516A-CCAT	Mellanox ConnectX-5 Lx 100GbE	2	Each NIC has two 100 GBIT/s ports