High Performance Data Transfer in Grid Environment Using GridFTP over InfiniBand

Abstract

GridFTP, designed using the Globus XIO framework, is one of the most popular methods in use to perform data transfers in the grid environment. But the performance of GridFTP in WAN is limited by the relatively low communication bandwidth offered by the existing network protocols. On the other hand, modern interconnects such as InfiniBand, with many advanced communication features like zero-copy protocol and RDMA operations, can greatly improve communication efficiency. In this paper, we take on the challenge of combining the ease of use of the Globus XIO framework and the high performance achieved through InfiniBand communication, thereby natively sup-porting GridFTP over InfiniBand based networks. The Advanced Data Transfer Service (ADTS), designed in our previous work, provides the low level InfiniBand support to the Globus XIO layer. We introduce the concepts of I/Ostaging in the Globus XIO ADTS driver to achieve efficient disk based data transfers. We evaluate our designs in both LAN and WAN environments using micro benchmarks as well as communication traces from several real world applications. We also provide insights into the communication performance with some in-depth analysis. Our experimental evaluation shows a performance improvement of up to100% for ADTS based data transfers as opposed to TCP or UDP based ones in LAN and high delay WAN scenarios.