Abstract

The networks in traditional data centers have remained unchanged for decades and have grown large, complex and costly. Many data centers have a general purpose Ethernet network and one or more additional specialized networks for storage or high performance low latency applications. Network convergence promises to lower the cost and complexity of the data center network by virtualizing the different networks onto a single wire. There is little evidence, aside from vendors' claims, that validate network convergence actually achieves these goals. This work defines a framework for creating a series of unbiased tests to validate converged technologies and compare them to traditional configurations. A case study involving two different network converged technologies was developed to validate the defined methodology and framework. The study also shows that these two technologies do indeed perform similarly to non-virtualized network, reduce costs, cabling, power consumption and are easy to operate.

Degree

College and Department

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology; Technology

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/