Impact of transport protocols and message passing libraries on cluster-based computing performance

This paper provides an experimental assessment of the impact of the underlying networking in a cluster-based computing environment. The assessment is quantified through application level benchmarking, process level communication, and networkfile I/O. Two testbeds are considered-one small cluster of SUN workstations and another larger cluster composed of 32 high-end IBM RS/6000 platforms. The cluster machines have Ethernet, FDDI, Fiber Channel and ATM network interface cards installed. This provides a consistent testbed since the processors and operating system are identical for this suite of experiments. A major issue to be examined is ATM-based local area networks. In particular a primary goal of this work is to assess the suitability of an ATM-based network to support interprocess communication and remote file I/O systems for distributed computing.