10Gb Ethernet Solution Guide

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What is 10GbE?
Ethernet is an open standard technology that has been around for over 30 years, continually evolving to become the dominant choice for wiring homes and enterprises around the world. Today, more than 85 percent of all installed network connections and more than 95 percent of all LANs are Ethernet-based. The 10GbE specification was ratified by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) organisation in 2002 as IEEE Std 802.3ae-2002 and whilst remaining fully backward compatible with 1GbE, it offers significant advancements, such as:

A ten-fold increase in bandwidth with data transmission speeds of up to 10 billion bits per second compared to 1GbEs 1 billion bits per second Operates only in full-duplex mode as opposed to 1GbEs half-duplex mode, which provides faster, lower-latency responses to network transmissions (latency, being the idling time wasted by one component waiting for a response from another) Designed to operate not only over local area networks (LAN) but also wide area networks (WAN).

10GbE adoption has now begun to accelerate, due to its cost-effective performance, proven flexibility, and wide applicability.

What are the market drivers and applications for 10GbE?

As Ethernet is an open standard, vendors such as BLADE Network Technologies, Chelsio and Qlogic are able to offer Ethernetcompatible products with the features needed by customers at an affordable price Increased processing power with the adoption of multi-core processor-based server platforms has driven the need for greater network bandwidth and more efficient processing of network traffic Rapid growth in IP (Internet Protocol) traffic, with the increasing popularity of voice over IP (VOIP) and video on demand (VOD) real-time applications has created a demand for high bandwidth, low-latency networks with predictable performance The ever-increasing popularity of virtualisation means server resources are now fully utilised leading to increased network traffic and so the need for more bandwidth to alleviate I/O (input/output) networking bottlenecks in data centres The requirements for data centres to reduce power consumption and reduce operational costs are also driving customers towards converged networks. FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) allows the transmission of Fibre Channel protocols over 10GbE enabling networking and storage convergence, providing cost savings in initial hardware purchase, power and manageability

Limited bandwidth and the TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) processing overhead have limited the adoption of iSCSI (Internet Small Computer System Interface) storage area networks. But now, iSCSI has a bright future, with multi-core processor platforms delivering the performance required to handle terabytes of storage and 10GbE providing much needed throughput

10GbE meets network requirements for bandwidth-intensive applications, offers loss-less capabilities for storage devices, and low-latency needed for High Performance Computing (HPC) in research and commercial environments.

What is the growing market opportunity for 10GbE?

The need to converge networking, storage and HPC in the data centre and the relentless rapid growth in IP traffic and its popularity for carrying voice, data and video continue to drive the demand for greater network bandwidth. The need for high performing converged networks has driven a market that will become a $2B total addressable market (TAM) in 2010. Employing 10GbE to implement a single network fabric (comparison of a large computer network to a weave or fabric) simplifies network management and reduces components compared to current solutions like InfiniBand and Fibre Channel. With the introduction of 40GbE and 100GbE over the next few years, analysts have projected the combined, worldwide sales of 10G, 40G, and 100G ports on networking equipment to be strong over the next 5 years, with enterprises and service providers expected to spend an accumulative $105 billion between 2008 and 2013.

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10GbE solution
In many cases today, different switching fabrics are being used for data centre networking, storage networks and high performance computing. With a different type of technology being used for each, requiring its own tools and expertise to manage; such as Fibre Channel for storage, InfiniBand for High Performance Computing, and Ethernet and 10Gb Ethernet for data networking. By using 10GbE as the single I/O fabric connecting servers, one can significantly reduce the amount of equipment and respectively reduce the cost of operation by using less power, taking less space and easier/simpler administration.

Example of parallel networks for different purposes

Example of a 10Gb Ethernet Storage Converged Network

Components of a 10GbE solution

The main components of a 10GbE solution are Host Bus Adaptors (HBA), that connect a host system (computer) to other network and storage devices. Switches, the computer networking devices that connect the various network segments (logical divisions, such as accounts, sales, research and development, etc,), and cables providing the physical links. Host Bus Adapter (HBA) 10GbE HBAs from companies such as Chelsio support the iSCSI protocol, enabling them to support storage area networks (SAN), as well as HPC, network-attached storage (NAS) and local area network (LAN) environments. So they can be used as a single interconnect in any server, leading to the convergence of these heterogeneous environments into a single, common network. High-performance adapters, such as Chelsios T3 Unified Wire Adapters and QLogics Intelligent Ethernet Adapters also provide TCP/IP protocol offload. By removing this processor intensive task from the host CPU it frees up processing cycles, significantly improving the throughput of servers, server appliances, and storage platforms. Switches 10GbE switches provide lossless, low latency, low power and low cost interconnectivity. Switches such as, BLADE Network Technologies new VMreadyTM & SmartConnectTM RackSwitches family extends virtualisation by mirroring the benefits of server virtualisation within the network. Save energy through rack-friendly cooling and alleviate management pain by removing complexity through a simplified BLADEHarmony Manager.

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Cables Like previous versions of Ethernet, 10GbE supports both copper and fibre cabling. There are five IEEE standards of copper cabling such as 10GBASE-CX4 and 10GBASE-T for use in different applications and over varying distances up to 300 metres. Seven optical or fibre standards of which there are two classifications based on distance, single-mode (SMF) and multi-mode (MMF). For example,10GBASE-LX4 operates both modes with a reach of 300m in MMF and 10km in SMF, whilst 10GBASE-ER only operates in SMF up to 40 kilometres.

What we offer
Avnet Technology Solutions, as industry-recognised specialists in storage products and one of the worlds largest storage-centric value-added distributors offers unrivalled experience in the Storage market. Avnet is highlighting 10GbE with a comprehensive line card, having identified the fastest growth segment within networking as a critical offering for their resellers. Leading the list are innovators, such as BLADE Network Technologies, Chelsio Communications, QLogic and Emulex. BLADE Network Technologies is the leading supplier of Gigabit and 10GbE network infrastructure solutions for blade servers and scale-out server and storage racks. BLADEs top-of-rack RackSwitchTM Ethernet networking family, with SmartConnectTM and VMreadyTM management and virtualisation software, offers a 10GbE, low-latency, low power, and costeffective solution for the most demanding data centre needs, from HPC to cloud computing and video on demand. The industrys first green networking product, RackSwitchTM, uses less power than two light bulbs and is uniquely designed to meet the needs of the dynamic data centre, affordably and efficiently allowing for virtual, cooler, easier data centre networking. Chelsio Communications leads the convergence of networking, storage and clustering interconnects with its robust, highperformance and proven Unified Wire technology. Featuring a highly scalable and programmable architecture, Chelsio offers 10GbE adapter cards, delivering the low latency and superior throughput required for high-performance computing applications. Chelsios unique offloading technology has been shown to deliver the highest performance for many applications, including accelerating storage, such as iSCSI, NFS and CIFS. This acceleration in conjunction with Chelsios iSCSI Initiator/Target, Unified Storage Server (USS) and Unified Storage Router (USR) provides customers with a complete high performance, feature rich storage solution. Emulex provides leading converged networking solutions for the data centre, its LightPulse LP21000 family of Converged Network Adapters (CNAs) are intelligent multi-protocol adapters that provide host LAN and Fibre Channel SAN connectivity over 10Gb/s Ethernet using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and Enhanced Ethernet functionality. Unrivalled scalability and industry leading virtualisation support make the singleport Emulex LP21000 and dual-port LP21002 CNAs ideal solutions for server I/O consolidation. Leveraging eight generations of advanced, field-proven Fibre Channel technology, the PCI Expressbased LP21000 family meets the robust interoperability and reliability requirements of corporate data centres. QLogic is a global leader and technology innovator in high performance networking, including adapters, switches and ASICs. QLogics 10GbE Intelligent Ethernet adapters work in conjunction with new features in the latest virtualisation operating systems to break through I/O bottlenecks and boost virtual machine performance to meet the needs of virtualised data centre environments. Implementing NetQueue technology to eliminate queuing bottlenecks, freeing up processor resources to support heavier weight applications on the virtual machine (VM) or more VMs per server and supporting advanced virtualisation features such as VMotion. This combination of capabilities provides customers with a high performance virtual networking solution. The products from these companies and those of other leading vendors such as, Myricom, Intel and Fujitsu enable us to provide flexible, high-bandwidth, low latency, low power and low cost 10GbE solutions for your customers.

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How to Sell
10GbE allows scalable computing and storage systems to be linked by a high performance, low cost fabric. This presents a compelling story to solve the enterprises needs for storage capacity, application performance, reduced cost by network convergence and long distance connectivity. These capabilities also enable computing and storage resource to be deployed efficiently to provide high availability and business continuity. When looking to sell 10GbE solutions we must first target the correct markets that will be growth areas and can easily see the benefits of 10GbE deployment. Currently there are 4 main applications & market sectors that that will see the benefit of 10GbE solutions. HPC (High Performance Computing) The benefit of 10GbE in HPC environments is two fold, firstly the additional bandwidth provides the performance required in HPC environments and secondly it allows the use of a common dependable network access method to connect their servers. High performance clusters are used for a variety of applications that require any form of simulation or Finite Element Analysis (FEA) such as biosciences, geosciences, mechanical design, defense, imaging and financial modeling. In short any field that requires intense, powerful compute processing capabilities. From an interconnect perspective there are 3 main considerations that 10GbE delivers for a cluster to effectively serve these applications.

High throughput Low latency Scalability.

Questions to ask

Are you running any high performance applications that require server clustering? What network technology are you using for you high performance computing? Are you using 1GbE for you high performance computing? What are the main performance requirements for you high performance computing applications, high throughput/bandwidth, low latency or scalability?

Finance In financial markets, market data applications must deliver information at ever-increasing rates and with minimal latency. Customers relying on market data feeds need timely and quick access to market data information so they can perform trading calculations and execute trades. A delay of even a few microseconds can have a huge negative impact on a financial trading firm. Applications run by financial firms require large scale server deployments with multi-core CPUs, more memory and low latency means of transporting data across their network. Currently 1GbE networks are reaching their limits of bandwidth maintainability and latency. When you also consider that these companies are deploying virtualisation and storage consolidation then the need for a sustainable high performance network is greater. Scaling to 10GbE is a natural evolution for 1GbE networks and doesnt require expertise in deployment and maintaining separate network fabrics.

Questions to ask

Are there any bandwidth or latency needs that are paramount to your companys success? How important is quick delivery of market data to your business? Do you find your existing network suffers from bottlenecks/bandwidth issues?

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Storage Networking & Data Centre Consolidation Network consolidation or convergence contributes to an increasing need for storage consolidation. Currently large organisations may deploy or have deployed various network technologies depending on the nature of applications they are running, each network technology will have a unique architecture and require a dedicated management team. By deploying 10GbE as a common interconnect you can achieve greater storage consolidation into one pool of storage that was once managed by multiple technologies. The growth of iSCSI on 1GbE networks, introduction and ratification of FCoE as an accepted standard and the ability of 10GbE to provide enhanced performance of HPC applications has meant that one common interconnect is achievable in the form of 10GbE. This is further endorsed by the release of new Converged Network Adapters (CNAs) from Emulex and QLogic which allow standard Ethernet, Fibre Channel and iSCSI traffic to be managed via a single HBA. This means companies now have the ability to bring their entire infrastructure under one technology with one management team, reducing costs and improving productivity.

Questions to ask

What are your storage needs? What is your storage strategy? Are you deploying any iSCSI solutions? Will you be looking at network convergence/storage consolidation in the near future? Will you be looking to deploy FCoE in the near future?

Virtualisation In the past enterprise data centre environments have fully adopted the scale-out model server deployment model. As a result, IT managers have seen their data centres expand from hundreds to thousands of servers running different operating systems, applications and multiple storage technologies. As the number of servers and storage systems has grown, so have operational costs, which include people, space, power and cooling. In response, IT organisations are now shifting to virtual environments using products such as Microsofts Hyper-V, Vmware ESX and DataCores SANmelody or SANsymphony, to change static data centre resources into agile, shared computing assets. Virtualisation solutions can dramatically increase performance levels, maximise return on investment, and allow enterprises to rapidly deploy and scale IT resource on demand. Along with a drive to converge network technologies over 10GbE interconnect, 10GbE is an obvious choice for unifying network, clustering and storage communications for emerging vitualised data centre environments. 10GbE provides both the bandwidth and low latency required to guarantee the performance levels needed in a virtual environment.

Questions to ask

What network infrastructure are you running in your virtual environment? What types of applications are you using on your virtual machines? Do you suffer from any bottlenecks/bandwidth issues when deploying virtual machines? Are you having issues providing redundancy within your virtual environments?

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