A port expander using protocol-independent link-aggregation technologies for large-scale data-center networks

A port expander using protocol-independent linkaggregation technologies for distributed large-scale data-center networks was proposed and evaluated. These technologies can accommodate multiple link-layer protocols with various data rates to form distributed large-scale data centers. They also reduce processing latency of data-center networks, compared with conventional data center networks (which require multi-stage frame processing). A prototype port expander implementing the proposed technologies on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) was constructed and experimentally evaluated. The implementation rate for each FPGA is 80% maximum. The prototype port expander can aggregate three kinds of different low-speed physical links (i.e., 10GbE, 40GbE, and 100GbE). This implementation demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed protocol-independent link-aggregation technologies for large-scale data center networks.