hesela.devInfiniBand
InfiniBand is a standardized switched-fabric interconnect architecture for computing and storage systems that supports message exchange and remote direct memory access.
Architecture: InfiniBand defines an interconnect, not a storage command set. RoCE carries RDMA over Ethernet; it is not another name for an InfiniBand fabric. A shared RDMA programming model does not establish wire compatibility. [1] [2]
Endpoints: A queue pair groups send and receive work queues. The selected service determines supported operations and delivery guarantees; InfiniBand includes reliable and unreliable services. NVMe/RDMA specifically requires reliable queue-pair modes. [2] [3]
Management: A subnet manager discovers the fabric, assigns local identifiers and configures routing. These network-management responsibilities are distinct from an NVMe discovery controller's storage connection information. [2] [3]
Storage bindings: NVMe/RDMA can use InfiniBand, RoCE or iWARP as providers. iSER instead extends iSCSI for RDMA-capable protocols; RFC 7145 includes InfiniBand's Reliable Connected service. The fabric alone does not identify which storage protocol an endpoint supports. [3] [4]
Sharing: Justitia (NSDI 2022) separates NIC resource contention from fabric congestion; its tested applications could interfere despite reliable transport. This is historical experimental evidence, not a current-hardware performance guarantee. [5]
Evidence boundary: This is an architecture and specification review, not a hardware, interoperability or latency experiment. No universal performance ranking follows from the transport name.
Relations
- related
- RDMA storage networking, NVMe/RDMA, RoCEv2, iWARP, iSCSI Extensions for RDMA (iSER), NVMe discovery controller
Citations
- InfiniBand Trade Association: architecture specification and InfiniBand/RoCE distinction
- NVIDIA RDMA Aware Networks Programming User Manual, archived DOCA 3.5.0: glossary and sections 3.1-3.5
- NVM Express NVMe over RDMA Transport 1.3, sections 1.4, 2 and 3.1
- RFC 7145: iSCSI Extensions for RDMA, section 1.2
- Zhang et al., Justitia: Software Multi-Tenancy in Hardware Kernel-Bypass Networks (NSDI 2022), sections 2.2, 3.1 and 3.3
Sources & caveats
- Primary-source architecture and protocol review. The archived vendor guide supports vocabulary and management roles; its historical speeds and performance marketing are not adopted as current facts. No experiment was performed.