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PortLand: a scalable fault-tolerant layer 2 data center network fabric

Published: 16 August 2009 Publication History
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  • Abstract

    This paper considers the requirements for a scalable, easily manageable, fault-tolerant, and efficient data center network fabric. Trends in multi-core processors, end-host virtualization, and commodities of scale are pointing to future single-site data centers with millions of virtual end points. Existing layer 2 and layer 3 network protocols face some combination of limitations in such a setting: lack of scalability, difficult management, inflexible communication, or limited support for virtual machine migration. To some extent, these limitations may be inherent for Ethernet/IP style protocols when trying to support arbitrary topologies. We observe that data center networks are often managed as a single logical network fabric with a known baseline topology and growth model. We leverage this observation in the design and implementation of PortLand, a scalable, fault tolerant layer 2 routing and forwarding protocol for data center environments. Through our implementation and evaluation, we show that PortLand holds promise for supporting a ``plug-and-play" large-scale, data center network.

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    • (2024)An Improved Fault Diagnosis Algorithm for Highly Scalable Data Center NetworksMathematics10.3390/math1204059712:4(597)Online publication date: 17-Feb-2024
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    1. PortLand: a scalable fault-tolerant layer 2 data center network fabric

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      Published In

      cover image ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review
      ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review  Volume 39, Issue 4
      SIGCOMM '09
      October 2009
      325 pages
      ISSN:0146-4833
      DOI:10.1145/1594977
      Issue’s Table of Contents
      • cover image ACM Conferences
        SIGCOMM '09: Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM 2009 conference on Data communication
        August 2009
        340 pages
        ISBN:9781605585949
        DOI:10.1145/1592568
      Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      Published: 16 August 2009
      Published in SIGCOMM-CCR Volume 39, Issue 4

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      Author Tags

      1. data center network fabric
      2. layer 2 routing in data centers

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      Cited By

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      • (2024)An Improved Fault Diagnosis Algorithm for Highly Scalable Data Center NetworksMathematics10.3390/math1204059712:4(597)Online publication date: 17-Feb-2024
      • (2024)Investigating Data Center Network ProtocolsProceedings of the 2024 Applied Networking Research Workshop10.1145/3673422.3674897(91-93)Online publication date: 23-Jul-2024
      • (2023)Data Centre Efficiency Enhancement by Metrics Oriented Approach to Revamp Green Cloud Computing ConceptInternational Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering10.35940/ijitee.F9532.071282312:8(1-14)Online publication date: 30-Jul-2023
      • (2023)Study of data center communication network topologies using complex network propagation modelFrontiers in Physics10.3389/fphy.2023.117409911Online publication date: 9-May-2023
      • (2023)Performance of Meshed Tree Protocol in Data Center NetworksProceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Future of Internet Routing & Addressing10.1145/3607504.3609290(15-22)Online publication date: 10-Sep-2023
      • (2023)Fast, Scalable and Robust Centralized Routing for Data Center NetworksIEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking10.1109/TNET.2023.325954131:6(2624-2639)Online publication date: Dec-2023
      • (2023)vTopology: Virtual MAC Address Aided Network Slicing in Multi-Tenant Data CentersIEEE Network: The Magazine of Global Internetworking10.1109/MNET.106.210061737:2(214-221)Online publication date: 5-Sep-2023
      • (2023)Virtual Network Function Placement for Serving Weighted Services in NFV-Enabled NetworksIEEE Systems Journal10.1109/JSYST.2023.325777617:4(5648-5659)Online publication date: Dec-2023
      • (2023)Design and Performance Analysis of Electro Optic ToR(EO-ToR) for Low Latency Data Center Network2023 5th International Conference on Energy, Power and Environment: Towards Flexible Green Energy Technologies (ICEPE)10.1109/ICEPE57949.2023.10201600(1-6)Online publication date: 15-Jun-2023
      • (2023)A Research Review of OpenFlow for Datacenter NetworkingIEEE Access10.1109/ACCESS.2022.323346611(770-786)Online publication date: 2023
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