Question

What specific RDMA technology allows NVMe-oF to achieve low-latency communication by bypassing the host CPU and using Ethernet hardware?

Accepted Answer

The specific RDMA technology that enables NVMe-oF to achieve low-latency communication over Ethernet is RoCE, which stands for RDMA over Converged Ethernet. RDMA, or Remote Direct Memory Access, is a networking process that allows a computer to access the memory of another computer directly without involving either system&#x27;s operating system or CPU. By bypassing the CPU, data transfer occurs significantly faster and with less delay because the processor does not have to spend cycles managing network protocols. NVMe-oF, or NVMe over Fabrics, is a storage protocol that extends the speed and efficiency of NVMe drives across a network. When RoCE is used, the network interface card, also known as an NIC, handles the movement of data between the storage and the host memory hardware-level. This prevents the host CPU from becoming a bottleneck during data transmission. To ensure this process works reliably on standard Ethernet, RoCE requires a converged network infrastructure that supports priority flow control to manage traffic and prevent packet loss, ensuring the data arrives reliably without the traditional overhead of standard networking protocols like TCP/IP.

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What specific RDMA technology allows NVMe-oF to achieve low-latency communication by bypassing the host CPU and using Ethernet hardware?