CSP: A Novel System Architecture for Scalable Internet and Communication Services

The boundary between the network edge and the front-end servers of the data center is blurring. Appliance vendors are flooding the market with new capabilities, while switch/router vendors scramble to add these services to their traditional transport services. The result of this competition is a set of ad-hoc technologies and capabilities to provide services at the network edge. This paper describes the Comm Services Platform (CSP); a system architecture for this new ‘communication services tier’ of the data center. CSP enumerates a set of architectural components to provide scalable communication services built from standard building blocks that utilize emerging server, I/O and network technologies. The building blocks of CSP include a System Area Network, the Virtual Interface Architecture, programmable network processors, and standard high-density servers.