An efficient implementation of the InfiniBand link layer

Author

Lee, Jaesung ; Lee, Hyuk-Jae ; Park, Kyoung

Author_Institution

Electron. & Telecommun. Res. Inst., Seoul, South Korea

fYear

2003

fDate

17-20 Sept. 2003

Firstpage

355

Lastpage

358

Abstract

InfiniBand is a new system interconnection protocol that provides high bandwidth, expandability, and scalability. This paper presents the design and implementation of the link layer of an InfiniBand HCA (host channel adapter). Six VLs (virtual lanes), three for transmit and three for receive, are employed to communicate data between the transport layer and the link layer. For the efficient implementation of the receiver logic, a high-speed packet buffering architecture with a novel FIFO circuit is proposed. The new architecture enables the efficient utilization of the InfiniBand bandwidth and the reduction of hardware cost as well as power consumption. The implemented link layer core is employed by an InfiniBand HCA chip called KINCA that complies with InfiniBand protocol v1.0a and is fabricated with the UMC 0.18 μm process.

Keywords

data communication equipment; interconnected systems; interconnections; logic design; packet switching; protocols; telecommunication links; telecommunication networks; 0.18 micron; FIFO; InfiniBand HCA; InfiniBand link layer; KINCA; high-speed packet buffering architecture; host channel adapter; interconnection bandwidth; interconnection expandability; interconnection scalability; network processor; receiver logic; system interconnection protocol; transport layer; virtual lanes; Bandwidth; Centralized control; Electronic mail; Fabrics; Hardware; Integrated circuit interconnections; LAN interconnection; Protocols; Space technology; Telecommunication computing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

SOC Conference, 2003. Proceedings. IEEE International [Systems-on-Chip]

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8182-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SOC.2003.1241542

Filename

1241542