Performance evaluation of the ServerNet(R) SAN under self-similar traffic

Abstract

Self-similar traffic distributions have been observed in a wide range of networking applications and models such as LANs, WANs, telnet, FTP, WWW, ISDN, SS7 and VBR traffic over ATM. Therefore, it has been suggested that many other theoretical protocols and systems need to be reevaluated under this different type of traffic before practical implementations potentially show their faults. The ServerNet SAN is a new core technology for server architectures that focuses on moving data. It is a wormhole-routed, packet-switched, point-to-point network with special attention paid to reducing latency and assuring reliability. In this paper we investigate the implications of self-similar traffic distributions in the ServerNet SAN, and compare the results with those obtained on the basis of the Poisson assumption.