IBTA Plugfest 33 Sees First InfiniBand HDR 200Gb/s Compliance Testing

The InfiniBand® Trade Association (IBTA), a global organization dedicated to maintaining and furthering the InfiniBand™ and RoCE specifications, today announced the availability of its latest InfiniBand Combined Cable and Device Integrators’ List and RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) Interoperability List. Held at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), IBTA Plugfest 33 was the first instance that HDR 200Gb/s copper cables were tested for compliance to the IBTA specification, paving the way for the roll-out of HDR clusters in 2019. Additionally, Plugfest 33 was the first event to include both InfiniBand EDR and InfiniBand FDR interoperability testing, which ensures a high level of satisfaction for deployers of InfiniBand solutions.

Key highlights from Plugfest 33:

New Testing Capabilities

• New equipment and application software enabled the development of new tests for InfiniBand HDR 200Gb/s, including the first HDR 200Gb/s cooper cable tests.
• First IBTA Plugfest to include both InfiniBand EDR 100Gb/s and InfiniBand FDR 56Gb/s interoperability testing of copper and optical cables from all major vendors.

Improved RoCE interoperability testing

• 19 RoCE devices and 61 cables were tested in 26 different interoperability scenarios, which involved SFP and QSFP cables running at 10, 25, 40, 50 and 100 GbE speeds.
• 25 new RoCE Transport Layer tests in addition to new DCB tests, leading to improved interoperability between a diverse selection of IBTA member RDMA products.

“The IBTA’s rigorous, independent third-party compliance and interoperability program ensures that each cable and device tested successfully meets end user needs and expectations of InfiniBand and RoCE ecosystems,” said Rupert Dance, Chair of the IBTA Compliance and Interoperability Working Group (CIWG). “The ability of IBTA Plugfest participants to interact with engineers from many device and cable vendors while resolving problems in real time is essential to the success, compliance and interoperability of all InfiniBand and RoCE solutions.”

The IBTA Plugfest is an invaluable benefit to members and creates a clear path to deliver to their customers products that are compliant to the InfiniBand and RoCE specifications and interoperable within the larger ecosystem. Each product that completes compliance and interoperability testing is compiled into the resulting InfiniBand Integrators’ List and RoCE Interoperability List. The lists are technical resources that provide immense benefits to all end users deploying RDMA-based fabrics. A wide range of customers leverage these results when determining which products to use when designing or upgrading their systems.

Vendors that contributed test equipment to IBTA Plugfest 33 include Ace Unitech, Anritsu, Keysight Technologies, Molex, Software Forge, and Wilder Technologies.

Members that participated in Plugfest 33 include Broadcom, Cavium, Huawei, Finisar, Mellanox Technologies, NetApp, and Volex.

The following resources provide additional information about the IBTA Integrators’ List Program:

• Methods of Implementation (MOI)
• Integrators’ List Policy and Testing Procedures
• Archives of past InfiniBand Integrators’ Lists and RoCE Interoperability Lists

SAVE THE DATE: IBTA Plugfest 35 will be held April 8 – April 19, 2019 at UNH-IOL. Registration information is available on the Plugfest page.

To learn more about the benefits of becoming an IBTA member, visit the Membership Information page.

About the InfiniBand® Trade Association

The InfiniBand® Trade Association was founded in 1999 and is chartered with maintaining and furthering the InfiniBand and the RoCE specifications. The IBTA is led by a distinguished steering committee that includes Broadcom, HPE, IBM, Intel Corporation, Mellanox Technologies, Microsoft and QLogic. Other members of the IBTA represent leading enterprise IT vendors who are actively contributing to the advancement of the InfiniBand and RoCE specifications. The IBTA markets and promotes InfiniBand and RoCE from an industry perspective through online, marketing and public relations engagements, and unites the industry through IBTA-sponsored technical events and resources. For more information on the IBTA, visit www.infinibandta.org.

InfiniBand (TM/SM) is a trademark and service mark of the InfiniBand Trade Association. Other names and brands are the property of their respective owners.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190219005019/en/

Allison Barry
Nereus for IBTA
Tel: +1.503.619.0691
[email protected]