Differences between infiniband and Ethernet standards

InfiniBand (literally "infinite bandwidth" technology, abbreviated as IB) and Ethernet standards are two different data center network communication technologies, which differ significantly in many aspects. The following is a detailed comparison of the two:

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1. Design goals

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InfiniBand:

It is a dedicated protocol originally designed for connections between servers, storage, and network devices to meet the needs of data centers.

It uses high-speed differential signal technology and multi-channel parallel transmission mechanism, and its main goal is to provide high performance, low latency, and high reliability.

Ethernet:

It is a general-purpose protocol that is widely used in local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN) communications.

It uses carrier sense multiple access/collision detection (CSMA/CD) mechanism to avoid collisions, and its main goal is to achieve simplicity, flexibility, and scalability.

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2. Transmission rate and latency

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InfiniBand:

Supports multiple transmission modes, including SDR (single channel reception), DDR (dual channel reception), QDR (quad channel reception), FDR (differential reception), EDR (extended differential reception), HDR (high density reception) and NDR (narrowband differential reception).

Due to the use of faster transmission rates and dedicated hardware, it has obvious advantages in latency.

Ethernet:

Also supports multiple transmission rates, such as 10Mbps, 100Mbps, 1Gbps, 10Gbps, 25Gbps, 100Gbps, 200Gbps, 400Gbps, etc.

Latency mainly depends on the performance of network equipment and network traffic, which is usually higher than InfiniBand.

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3. Reliability and scalability

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InfiniBand:

It has the characteristics of high reliability and low power consumption, which can meet the performance and reliability requirements of modern data centers.

It adopts high-speed differential signal technology and multi-channel parallel transmission mechanism, which can achieve extremely high data transmission rate and extremely low latency.

Ethernet:

Due to its versatility and wide application, it usually also has good reliability.

In terms of scalability, Ethernet has continuously improved network performance and reliability by introducing new technologies such as non-blocking network design and switch topology.

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4. ?Cost and maintenance

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InfiniBand:

It is a dedicated protocol that requires the use of specialized hardware and software. Therefore, the cost is relatively high.

However, since it is designed for data center environments, it has low environmental requirements and relatively low maintenance costs.

Ethernet:

Standard Ethernet switches and network cards can be used, so the cost is relatively low.

However, due to the complex design and configuration, the maintenance cost may be high.

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5. ?Applicable fields

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InfiniBand:

Mainly used in high-performance computing fields such as supercomputers, data centers, and scientific research institutions.

Its advantages are high-speed transmission, low latency, and scalability.

Ethernet:

It is widely used in enterprise networks, Internet access, and home networks.

Its main advantages are low cost, standardization, and wide support.

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In summary, InfiniBand and Ethernet standards have significant differences in design goals, transmission rate and latency, reliability and scalability, cost and maintenance, and applicable fields. According to the needs and limitations of actual application scenarios, you can choose a suitable protocol to meet specific requirements.