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[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] RE: iSCSI: No FramingJim I'd like to add our input to the "live discussion" (hoping we can reach broader consensus and closure in the Interim): We've analyzed the various proposals for long time. As the fundamentals of iSCSI is transmitting messages on top of a byte stream mechanism i.e. TCP, we share the views it needs to be addressed in a standard way. The preferred way to do it has been a generic Framing on top of TCP, but the recent IETF decisions has made it clear that this will not be available for some time, at least not on top of TCP. Therefore, we're back to square zero. iSCSI is better served with a Framing support that enjoys vendors support and that can also prevent a slow Initiator from placing high buffering requirements on a fast Target, running at 1Gb/s or 10Gb/s. So my conclusion has to be that IPS is better off with adoption of Markers that are not hard for HW or SW. FIM vs. COWS: FIM is preferred. COWS will drag the group to even more discussions on mode selection and impact on SW Initiators. We should leave room for negotiation of another Framing mechanism in the future, that may be the result of the TSVWG group efforts. SHOULD vs. MAY vs. MUST: we may have enough support in the WG for a MUST, but it seems to me that the bare minimum is to make sure FIM is supported without introducing interoperability risks. But if there isn't enough support for a MUST, at least we need to make sure the spec is very clear on Framing. Hence, the bare minimum is that Framing support is integrated into the Login negotiation and the all mechanics nailed down (e.g. FIM initialization, edge cases e.g. Marker inside the iSCSI PDU header etc.) thx Uri -----Original Message----- From: WENDT,JIM (HP-Roseville,ex1) [mailto:jim_wendt@hp.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2002 10:47 PM To: ips@ece.cmu.edu Subject: iSCSI: No Framing Perhaps we should discuss the possibility of not specifying any framing mechanism (FIM or COWS) in the first version of iSCSI. The arguments for not specifying framing include (there may be others as well): 1) The brute force approach of putting TCP receiver reassembly memory on the iSCSI NIC will work for both 1Gbps and 10Gbps. Cost is incurred for memory chips, ASIC pins, power, and board space. But, it is a feasible approach. 2) I/O bus latency (or bandwidth limitations) could mandate inbound buffering (as a 'smoothing' buffer) from the iSCSI NIC to the host system. If this buffer memory is large enough to have to be off-chip, then it will require some minimum number of memory chips to provide the necessary bandwidth, and the memory/pins/power/space costs will be incurred anyway. 3) Very large receive buffering on the NIC is only required for high-bandwidth links traversing large geographic distances (which may not be the predominate case). These specialized implementations can cost more (e.g. more memory/power/pins/etc) and customers will likely be willing to pay accordingly. 4) Many NICs will likely aspire to be combo iSCSI+TOE+Ethernet NICs allowing the host system to use a single Ethernet port for all of its network communications. The TOE function on this combo NIC will already require TCP receive buffering and off- chip buffer memory to support the existing sockets interface receive model. More importantly, to allow senders to assume ownership of the buffer upon return from a socket send call, the TOE NIC would need to copy application send buffers into NIC memory as well. 5) The framing/marker mechanism will be an iSCSI-only solution. It is quite possible that the problem will be solved via a different, and hopefully more general, mechanism for other ULPs. 6) Both FIM and COWS are poor solutions for software implementation. COWS requires, at a minimum, the sender to read every word in the buffer. FIM either imposes additional sender gather processing (iovecs) or requires a data buffer copy (on systems that don't support HW gather on sends). 7) Unless all senders thoroughly test framing/markers now (i.e. unless the framing method is a MUST implement), there is potential for future interoperability problems as framing/marker receivers are deployed in the future. 8) Neither FIM nor COWS is an elegant solution. Are we comfortable with the legacy we are creating under the umbrella of state-of-the-art IP networked storage? 9) Is it essential to build in forward compatibility now, or will there be a different solution in the 10Gbps or 40Gbps timeframe - perhaps involving iSCSI- 2? Will it be reasonable to update or bridge initial 1Gbps deployments? So, it would be good to hear from several iSCSI NIC/chip implementors who: - have or plan to implement FIM or COWS (or some other framing mechanism) and take advantage of it to minimize demands on on-NIC buffer memory bandwidth/quantity. - believe that all-buffers-on-chip solutions are feasible and valid (wrt the points above, including #2) - can quantify the memory/pin/power/space cost savings for all-buffers-on-chip solutions Jim
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