DDSS: A low-overhead distributed data sharing substrate for cluster-based data-centers over modern interconnects

Abstract

Information-sharing is a key aspect of distributed applications such as database servers and web servers. Information-sharing also assists services such as caching, reconfiguration, etc. In the past, information-sharing has been implemented using ad-hoc messaging protocols which often incur high overheads and are not very scalable. This paper presents a new design for a scalable and a low-overhead Distributed Data Sharing Substrate (DDSS). DDSS is designed to support efficient data management and coherence models by leveraging the features of modern interconnects. It is implemented over the OpenFabrics interface and portable across multiple interconnects including iWARP-capable networks in LAN/WAN environments. Experimental evaluations with networks like InfiniBand and iWARP-capable Ammasso through data-center services show an order of magnitude performance improvement and the load resilient nature of the substrate. Application-level evaluations with Distributed STORM achieves close to 19% performance improvement over traditional implementation, while evaluations with check-pointing application suggest that DDSS is highly scalable. © 2006 Springer-Verlag.