APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY:
- Companies building HPC and datacenter systems
- Companies developing network components
- Future large-scale systems
ADVANTAGES:
- More efficient network performance
- Lower latency
- Requires fewer network resources
- Cost effective
BACKGROUND:
As bytes-per-FLOP ratios continue to decline, communication is becoming the constrictor for performance scaling. Communication has become a significant challenge towards preserving computation improvements, especially those expected by specialization, an increasing trend in HPC. Successful specialization improves compute performance, but also proportionally increases the demand on the interconnection network.
TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW:
Researchers from Columbia University and Berkeley Lab have arranged optical switches between electrical switches in order to modify the logical connectivity of a hierarchical network, thus producing a more efficient network due to its ability to better adapt to application traffic.
This new technology utilizes bandwidth steering in HPC, taking advantage of emerging silicon photonic switches to efficiently change the connectivity of the lower layers in a hierarchical topology. The optical switches extend the connections, thus increasing the amount of potential destinations. A controller monitors traffic and responds by configuring optical switches in a distributed manner using an algorithm. This invention constructs an efficiently-reconfigurable network adaptable to application needs.
At system scale, bandwidth steering reduces static power consumption per unit throughput by 36% and dynamic power consumption by 14% compared to a reference fat tree topology. These improvements magnify as the bandwidth of the upper network layer is tapered. In the testbed, bandwidth steering improves execution time by 69%, unaffected by bandwidth tapering.
BENEFITS:
This new technology improves connectivity of electrical switches by altering the configuration of optical switches, allowing dynamic adaptation to the network to application traffic demands thus producing a more efficient network. This technology has advantages over competing technologies because it only requires inexpensive components and has more benefits. The improvements in connectivity allow for aggressive oversubscription of higher layers and reduces cost with no performance penalty.
Additionally, this solution applies to different network topologies, and is ready to be implemented with current technology. This invention will contribute to future large-scale systems and help to develop network components, as well as companies building HPC and datacenter systems.
- More efficient network performance
- Lower latency
- Requires fewer network resources
- Cost effective
LBL PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: John Shalf
DEVELOPMENT STAGE: Proven principle
IP STATUS: Patent pending
OPPORTUNITY: Available for licensing or collaborative research.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION/LINKS: https://ipo.lbl.gov/hpc-hot-list/