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Tech Book—Dell Integrated System For Microsoft Azure Stack HCI
Preface Business Transformation and Data Center Modernization Evolution of Data Centers to HCI and Hybrid Cloud A Closer Look at Microsoft Azure Stack HCI Azure Stack HCI Architecture and Building Blocks Dell Integrated System for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI Portfolio – AX Nodes Networking Topologies for Azure Stack HCI Solutions
Networking Topologies for Azure Stack HCI Solutions
Overview
Scalable
Switchless storage
Switch Embedded Teaming (SET)
Remote Direct Memory Access
Scalable architecture for Dell Solutions for Azure Stack HCI
Fully converged network configuration
Non-converged network configuration
Switchless storage networking
Single-link full mesh topology
Dual-link full mesh topology
2-node back-to-back connected architecture
3-node single-link full mesh switchless interconnect
Single-node clusters
PowerSwitch model options for scalable infrastructure
iWARP vs RoCE for RDMA
Dell Fabric Design Center
Stretch Clustering with Azure Stack HCI Managing the Hybrid Cloud Sizing and Configuration Best Practices Dell Support and Services Conclusion Additional Resources

iWARP vs RoCE for RDMA

Home > Integrated Products > Microsoft HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies > Guides 22H2 and earlier > Tech Book—Dell Integrated System For Microsoft Azure Stack HCI > iWARP vs RoCE for RDMA

iWARP vs RoCE for RDMA

  • Traditional TCP/IP networks offer adequate bandwidth for many workloads, although it comes with some limitations, including CPU overhead and higher than wanted round-trip latency. The RDMA protocol reduces CPU overhead and latency by skipping through layers of the stack, resulting in rapid data transfers.

    Two network implementations of RDMA, the Internet Wide Area RDMA protocol (iWARP) and RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE), are embedded in the network adapter hardware, offloading nearly all the work from the CPU to offer faster networking:

    • iWARP implements RDMA over IP networks using TCP, making it ideal for organizations that want to use RDMA over their existing IP network infrastructure without any specialized hardware. iWARP requires no additional configuration at the ToR switches for its implementation.
    • RoCE v2 uses UDP and requires QoS (Quality of Service) to ensure packet delivery. It relies on an Ethernet network configured to use Layer 2 Priority Flow Control (PFC) or Layer 3 DSCP PFC to minimize congestive packet loss.
      Topic iWARP (Internet Wide Area RDMA Protocol) RoCE (RDMA over Convergent Ethernet)
      Ease of deployment No special network configuration (simple to install/configure) Requires network configuration (more complex to install/configure)
      QoS Not needed PAUSE frames, or DCB
      Routable Yes Yes with RoCE V2
      Latency Comparable to RoCE except for HPC applications Best
      Throughput Similar to RoCE Best
      Vendor support QLogic, Intel Mellanox and Intel
      Deployment size recommendation Data center or cluster ideal for remote communication (storage replica) May be more appropriate for clusters
      Interoperable between vendors Not supported Yes - RoCE from two different vendors should not reside in the same server

    See Reference Guide: Switch Configurations – RoCE for details about the switch configurations for all RoCE-based deployments for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies.

    See Reference Guide: Switch Configurations - iWARP for details about the switch configurations for all iWARP-based deployments for Microsoft Azure Stack HCI Solutions from Dell Technologies.