Mellanox Switch Systems

NVIDIA SKYWAY

HDR/EDR Infiniband to 200G/100G Ethernet gateway




Benefits • Industry leading InfiniBand to Ethernet gateway • Standard protocols • High Availability and Load Balancing support • Future-ready architecture


InfiniBand connects the world’s top HPC and artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers, delivering the fastest data speed, extremely low latency, and smart accelerations, together with the highest levels of efficiency and resilience.

IT organizations frequently choose InfiniBand solutions for connecting their compute and storage resources together. In scenarios where storage elements reside on an Ethernet network, or when outside connectivity to Ethernet is required, a high-speed gateway between InfiniBand and Ethernet networks is required.




Key Features Standard 2U appliance 1.6Tb/s solution 8-port HDR/HDR100/EDR 8-port 200/100Gb/s Ethernet




Skyway InfiniBand to Ethernet Gateway NVIDIA InfiniBand solutions incorporate In-Network Computing technology that performs data algorithms within the network devices, delivering ten times higher performance, and enabling the era of data centers. By delivering the fastest data speed, extremely low latency, smart accelerations and the highest efficiency and resiliency, InfiniBand is the best choice for connecting the world's top HPC and artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers. Many high-performance compute and storage infrastructures leverage the InfiniBand interconnect solution to connect both the compute and the storage portion together. However, in cases where the Storage elements reside on an external Ethernet network, or when outside connectivity to Ethernet is needed, a high-performance gateway between the InfiniBand and Ethernet networks can be used. By using NVIDIA Skyway, one can ensure the lowest latency for the internal data center compute communications, and scale the external connectivity to Ethernet as needed via the gateway.




Optimized Design Skyway is an appliance-based InfiniBand-to-Ethernet gateway, designed for quick and easy set up and management. Installed at the boundary between InfiniBand and Ethernet networks, the appliance supports standard IP routing protocols and is deployable on any InfiniBand topology. Skyway contains eight ConnectX Virtual Protocol Interconnect (VPI) dual-port adapter cards that enable the hardware-based forwarding of IP packets over InfiniBand (IPoIB) to Ethernet, and vice versa.




Reduced IT Costs and Complexity NVIDIA SB7800 switches deliver 36 ports of 100 gigabits per second (Gb/s) InfiniBand per port in a standard 1U standard chassis design. A single switch carries an aggregated bidirectional throughput of 7.2 terabits per second (Tb/s) and ultra-low port latency, both improving application performance and scalability, and reducing operational costs and IT infrastructure complexity. As an ideal top-of-rack leaf connectivity solution for small to extremely large clusters, the internally managed SB7800 and the externally managed SB7890 100Gb/s InfiniBand fixed-configuration switches allow flexibility through enabling a variety of topologies. Skyway also includes the NVIDIA Gateway operating system (MLNX-GW), which manages both the appliance hardware as well as the high availability and load balancing between gateway appliances and between ports.




Scalability and Efficiency Skyway’s scalable architecture allows IT administrators to adapt to increasing user demand over time by connecting multiple Skyway appliances in parallel - achieving higher connectivity bandwidth. Each gateway supports 1.6 terabits per second (Tb/s) of total throughput, utilizing 16 ports with 100Gb/s bandwidth of traffic.




InfiniBand Management The InfiniBand subnet hosts a single, centralized subnet manager (SM), that acts as a software-defined network (SDN) controller for the InfiniBand network. An option to run the SM within the UFM (Unified Fabric Manager) is also available.


Full specification and details can be found in the Product Datasheet PDF file