BCube: A High Performance, Server-Centric Network Architecture for Modular Data Centers

Overview

This paper presents BCube, a new network architecture specifically designed for shipping-container based, modular data centers. At the core of the BCube architecture is its server-centric network structure, where servers with multiple network ports connect to multiple layers of COTS (commodity o-the-shelf) mini-switches. Servers act as not only end hosts, but also relay nodes for each other. BCube sup-ports various bandwidth-intensive applications by speeding-up one-to-one, one-to-several, and one-to-all traffic patterns, and by providing high network capacity for all-to-all traffic. BCube exhibits graceful performance degradation as the server and/or switch failure rate increases. This property is of special importance for shipping-container data centers, since once the container is sealed and operational, it becomes very difficult to repair or replace its components.