IBTA Plugfest 34 Included the First Instance of Compliance Testing for RoCE Solutions

BEAVERTON, Ore. – June 6, 2019 – The InfiniBand® Trade Association (IBTA), a global organization dedicated to maintaining and furthering the InfiniBand and RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) specifications, has published an updated InfiniBand Combined Cable and Device Integrators’ List and RoCE Integrators’ List. Held at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), IBTA Plugfest 34 included the introduction of compliance testing for RoCE-enabled products, resulting in the first ever RoCE Integrators’ List. Additionally, Plugfest 34 was the first event to include new test equipment that will enable the testing of HDR 200Gb/s speeds at future IBTA plugfests.

Key highlights from Plugfest 34 include:

Improved InfiniBand and RoCE Integrators’ Lists

  • The new InfiniBand Integrators’ List now specifies which tests were performed on each product, the operating systems used and all the protocols that were tested during the Plugfest Event. This provides end users with much more detailed information about the procedures used to validate the products included on the IBTA Integrators’ List.
  • The updated RoCE Integrators’ List includes a new format with more information, enhanced imagery and a formal introduction of compliance testing which verifies that the product conforms to the IBTA RoCE Specification. Products must pass both Compliance and Interoperability testing in order to be included on the IBTA Integrators’ List.

New Test Equipment

  • New test equipment from Anritsu and Keysight along with updated application software used during Plugfest 34 enabled and supported the development of new tests for InfiniBand HDR Cables and Devices running at speeds of 200Gb/s.

“The IBTA has the most rigorous Compliance and interoperability program in the industry. This ensures that RDMA products meet the expectations and needs of companies, governments, universities, High Performance Computing systems and Enterprise Data Centers that deploy our RDMA technologies,” said Rupert Dance, Chair of the IBTA Compliance and Interoperability Working Group (CIWG). “Independent third-party testing of Compliance to the specifications and Interoperability between vendor products is essential to the success of all InfiniBand and RoCE deployments.”

The IBTA Plugfest provides an exclusive opportunity for members to measure their products for compliance with the IBTA specifications and includes both InfiniBand and RoCE interoperability testing. This bi-annual event implements a rigorous process for quality assurance testing,  providing valuable benefits to all end users deploying RDMA-based fabrics. Countless customers consider these results when determining which products to use when designing or upgrading their systems.

Vendors that contributed test equipment to IBTA Plugfest 34 include Ace Unitech, Anritsu, Keysight Technologies, Molex, Software Forge and Wilder Technologies.

Members that participated in Plugfest 34 include BizLink, Broadcom, Finisar Corporation, Foxconn, Fujitsu Limited, Mellanox Technologies, Molex, NetApp, QLogic (Marvell), TE Connectivity and Volex.

The following resources provide additional information about the IBTA Integrators’ List Program:

Thanks to the new test equipment brought to Plugfest 34, test procedures were developed that will be used to test HDR products at future IBTA Plugfests. Further information is available on the Plugfest page.

To learn more about the benefits of becoming an IBTA member, visit the Membership Information page.

About the InfiniBand® Trade Association
The InfiniBand® Trade Association was founded in 1999 and is chartered with maintaining and furthering the InfiniBand and the RoCE specifications. The IBTA is led by a distinguished steering committee that includes Broadcom, HPE, IBM, Intel Corporation, Mellanox Technologies, Microsoft and QLogic. Other members of the IBTA represent leading enterprise IT vendors who are actively contributing to the advancement of the InfiniBand and RoCE specifications. The IBTA markets and promotes InfiniBand and RoCE from an industry perspective through online, marketing and public relations engagements, and unites the industry through IBTA-sponsored technical events and resources. For more information on the IBTA, visit www.infinibandta.org.

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Media Contacts:
Allison Barry
Nereus for IBTA
Tel: +1.503.619.0691
ibta@nereus-worldwide.com