The team performed the world’s first demonstration of RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) across a wide area network using the Lustre file system. The advancement came at the recent Supercomputing 12 (SC12) conference in Salt Lake City. SC12 is one of the most important events in the field of advanced computing, attracting thousands of attendees from around the world.

RoCE, pronounced “Rocky,” is a network protocol that enables remote direct memory access over an Ethernet network, a process that dramatically speeds up data transfer over networks. RDMA removes layers of protocol and software to transfer data from server memory to client memory in the most efficient way possible. RoCE migrates this approach from specialized networks to the widely deployed Ethernet.

“RoCE is incredibly powerful, and broadens the reach of this advanced approach from a single data center to statewide, national and global networks,” said Martin Swany, IU associate professor of computer science, associate director of the Data to Insight Center of the IU Pervasive Technologies Institute and director of the Indiana Center for Translational Network Research and Education (InCNTRE).

Tags: networking, research, research-technologies