Cloud-Scale Data Center Network Architecture

Cloud-scale data center network imposed unique requirements that are different from the tradition network architecture, which is based on a combination of Layer 2 Ethernet switches and Layer 3 routers. The state-of-the-art shows that the Layer 3 and Layer 2 model today brings significant configuration overhead and fails to meet some critical requirements of virtualized data center. As Ethernet offers high performance-to-cost ratio and ease of configuration, we argue that it is desirable to build the cloud-scale data center network replying only on Ethernet technology. ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan) container computer is a modular computer designed to be a building block for constructing cloudscale data centers. Rather than using a traditional data center network architecture, ITRI container computer’s internal interconnection fabric, called Peregrine, is specially architected to meet the scalability, fast fail-over and multitenancy requirements of these data centers. Peregrine is an all-Layer 2 network that is designed to support up to one million Layer 2 end points, provide quick recovery from any single network link/device failure, and incorporate dynamic load-balancing routing to make the best use of all physical network links. In addition, Peregrine features a unique private IP address reuse mechanism that allows virtual machines assigned the same IP address to run on it simultaneously without interfering with on another. Finally, the Peregrine architecture is implementable using only off-the-shelf commodity Ethernet switches. This report describes the design and implementation of a fully operational Peregrine prototype, which is built on a folded Clos physical network topology, and the results and analysis of a performance evaluation study based on measurements taken on prototype.