<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><center><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; ">SPAIN: COTS Data-Center Ethernet for Multipathing
over Arbitrary Topologies</span></center><center><p>
<font size="+1"><b>Jeff Mogul, HP Labs</b></font> </p></center>
<blockquote>
Operators of data centers want a scalable network fabric that supports
high bisection bandwidth and host mobility, but which costs very little
to purchase and administer. Ethernet almost solves the problem -- it is
cheap and supports high link bandwidths -- but traditional Ethernet
does not scale, because its spanning-tree topology forces traffic onto a
single tree. Many researchers have described "scalable Ethernet"
designs to solve the scaling problem, by enabling the use of multiple
paths through the network. However, most such designs require specific
wiring topologies, which can create deployment problems, or changes to
the network switches, which could obviate the commodity pricing of these
parts.
<p>
In this talk, I will describe SPAIN ("Smart Path Assignment In
Networks"). SPAIN provides multipath forwarding using inexpensive,
commodity off-the-shelf COTS) Ethernet switches, over arbitrary
topologies. SPAIN pre-computes a set of paths that exploit the
redundancy in a given network topology, then merges these paths into a
set of trees; each tree is mapped as a separate VLAN onto the physical
Ethernet. SPAIN requires only minor end-host software modifications,
including a simple algorithm that chooses between pre-installed paths to
efficiently spread load over the network. We demonstrate SPAIN's
ability to improve bisection bandwidth over both simulated and
experimental data-center networks.
</p><p>
Joint work with Jayaram Mudigonda and Praveen Yalagandula, and with
Mohammad Al-Fares (UCSD) </p></blockquote></body></html>