Providing quality of service in omni-path networks

Abstract

New hierarchical crossbar switch architectures, such as Omni-Path (OPA) and Cray X2, have appeared to improve packet latency, reduce overall cost and increase fault tolerance of the high-performance interconnection networks in supercomputing and data center systems. These and other interconnect technologies (Infiniband or 40/100 Gigabit Ethernet) include support to provide quality of service (QoS) to the applications. In this paper, we show how this QoS support can be enabled to achieve bandwidth and/or latency differentiation in Omni-Path interconnection networks, as a representative case of hierarchical switches. To do that, three different table-based schedulers are used. We include the description of these schedulers and a comparative study by using the results obtained when we evaluate them with Hiperion, a simulation tool that implements an OPA model.