SCIENCE

Mellanox ConnectX-2 EN NIC delivers required bandwidth and low latency that tomorrow’s data centers demand

Ixia has announced that Mellanox Technologies used its K2 High Speed Ethernet (HSE) test solution to verify the throughput of their ConnectX-2 EN Ethernet Network Interface Cards (NIC). Mellanox’s next generation NIC is designed for data centers using multiple HSE links, with demands for high throughput and low latency – handling more than 1.5 terabits per second.

“The bandwidth necessary to support data center applications and traffic is immense, and continues to grow. Conversely, tolerance for data center size, power, and cost continues to diminish. Mellanox’s leading interconnect devices are designed to deliver the performance and efficiency needed to meet these requirements,” said Amit Krig, senior director of engineering at Mellanox Technologies. “In our continuing development of HSE solutions, we needed a recognized leader in HSE testing, with a field-tested product that can generate the amount and types of traffic necessary to really stress our next-generation 40GE NICs. Ixia’s solutions perform at our high standards.”

Internet traffic has grown exponentially as greater numbers of users employ more and more complex types of traffic. The effect of this growth on data centers is substantial. Data transfer between information consumers and information sources, and between many virtualized components, has increased rapidly. Previous solutions – such as aggregating 10 Gbps links – complicate data center topologies, are costly, and extremely labor-intensive. It is essential that single, higher-speed links be available in the data center.

The Mellanox ConnextX-2 EN NIC is designed for converged fabrics in enterprise data centers, clustered computing, and embedded environments that benefit from high bandwidth, low latency interconnect efficiency. Mellanox chose Ixia's K2 and 10 GE solutions to replace their in-house, industry-grade partial-load solution as their testing needs evolved. Ixia’s solution rapidly scaled to Mellanox’s traffic demands, checked protocol conformance, generated layer 4-7 traffic, and accurately measured latency, loss, and jitter in real time. Ixia’s K2 HSE solution was the best option able to sufficiently stress the ConnextX-2 EN NIC and demonstrate its next-generation abilities.
 
Key Facts:

    * Mellanox ConnectX-2 EN Ethernet NICs deliver the industry lowest 1.3 µs latency with performance-leading 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity with stateless offloads.
    * Ixia’s HSE solutions are the only full-production test products available today that validate IEEE 802.3ba standards-based network elements. Ixia’s K2 modules generate and analyze 40 GE and 100 GE BERT and layer 2-7 line-rate traffic, with up to one million distinct flows, and are compatible with Ixia’s other applications and automation configurations.
    * QSFP+ is becoming the de facto interface for 40-GE-based data center networks. Ixia’s 40 GE modules are the only fully compliant, native QSFP+ interface offering a stable and ready-to-use test system.
    * Mellanox purchased Ixia’s award-winning IxNetwork, IxLoad, and IxANVL test applications to generate layer 2-3 traffic, layer 4-7 traffic, and to check protocol conformance.
 
“Ixia was first-to-market with an HSE test solution, and has field-proven its value over and over. Mellanox's evolving ConnectX-2 EN Ethernet NICs demonstrate the direction that data centers are heading – massive throughput of diverse traffic mixes, with low latency, jitter, and packet loss,” said Victor Dembovsky, vice president of sales at RDT Systems, Ixia’s exclusive distributor in Israel, Russia, and CIT. “Their adoption of Ixia’s K2 product and testing applications is further proof that Ixia and RDT will rise to the challenges of the evolving data center.”