Deadlock-free dynamic reconfiguration over InfiniBandTM NETWORKS

InfiniBand Architecture (IBA) is a newly established general-purpose interconnect standard applicable to local area, system area and storage area networking and I/O. Networks based on this standard should be capable of tolerating topological changes due to resource failures, link/switch activations, and/or hot swapping of components. In order to maintain connectivity, the network’s routing function may need to be reconfigured on each topological change. Although the architecture has various mechanisms useful for configuring the network, no strategy or procedure is specified for ensuring deadlock freedom during dynamic network reconfiguration. In this paper, a method for applying the Double Scheme over InfiniBand networks is proposed. The Double Scheme provides a systematic way of reconfiguring a network dynamically while ensuring freedom from deadlocks. We show how features and mechanisms available in IBA for other purposes can also be used to implement dynamic network reconfiguration based on the Double Scheme. We also propose new mechanisms that may be considered in future versions of the IBA specification for making dynamic reconfiguration and other subnet management operations more efficient.