Juniper Networks releases STAC-M2 Benchmarks using QFabric System

First published STAC-M2 project to utilize a data center-scale network fabric as the interconnect, rather than a single switch.

STAC has released an audited STAC-M2(TM) Benchmark of the following stack:

Network:
- Juniper Networks QFabric System (see below)
- Mellanox MNPH29D-XTR ConnectX®-2 EN NICs with RoCE

Messaging software:
- IBM WMQ Low Latency Messaging v2.6.0.3

Server platform:
- IBM x3650 M3 Model Model 7945 Servers
- 2 x six-Core Intel Xeon X5690 3.47 GHz
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 5.5

This was the first published STAC-M2 project to utilize a data center-scale network fabric as the interconnect, rather than a single switch. The Juniper QFabric System takes the primary components of a modular switch (line cards, backplane, and routing engines) and distributes them across three components: a high-density, fixed-configuration, top-of-rack edge device (QFabric Node - QFX3500), a high-speed transport device (QFabric Interconnect - QFX3008) that serves as the backplane, and a routing engine (QFabric Director) that provides all control and management services for the fabric. According to Juniper, the design goal for QFabric was to create a fabric that scales very high without increasing latency, while offering the management simplicity of a single switch.

Each message in these tests transited an ingress QFabric Node, a QFabric Interconnect, and an egress QFabric Node. At the base message rate in the baseline test (STAC.M2.v1.0.BASELINE.LAT1), the latency of this solution had a mean of 10 microseconds and standard deviation of 1 microsecond.

The report highlights are available here to all subscribers.

Qualified Members of the STAC Benchmark Council can access the report here.

The report may be requested by Observer Members as their firm's complimentary report.

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