The following workshop is cancelled

4th DC Converged And Virtual Ethernet Switching (DC CAVES) Workshop

Call For Papers

• The traditional Data Center (DC) compute model, especially in the x86 space, has consisted of lightly utilized servers running a bare metal OS or a Hypervisor with a small number of Virtual Machines (VMs). In this traditional model, servers attach to the network lower bandwidth links, such as 1 Gbps Ethernet and 2 or 4 Gbps Fibre Channel. This physical compute model suffers from two major issues: High capital expenses due to under utilized servers and multiple fabrics; and High operational expenses due to manual administration of many management tools. As such, the management tasks have been focused on maintaining the infrastructure and not on the services that are provided by the infrastructure to the business.
  
  In our view Data Centers are under going a major transition toward a Converged and Virtualized compute model. This new model allows for construction of flexible IT capability that enables the optimal use of compute and information to support business initiatives. This model has many highly utilized servers running many VMs per server, using high bandwidth links to communicate with virtual storage and virtual networks both within and across Data Center sites. For networking within the Data Center the potential value of this new model comes from: lowering capital expenses through higher utilization (server, storage and network), and converged fabrics; and lowering operational expenses through automated and integrated management that optimizes Data Center infrastructure. At the edge of the Data Center, virtual networking (e.g. MPLS, VPLS) also offers tremendous savings associated with combining networks, especially across the wide area network with its expensive WAN links.
  
  Scope
  
  Organized together with CNSM 2012, the fourth IEEE DC CAVES workshop is intended to serve as a forum to present the latest work by researchers and developers from both academia and industry. The workshop focuses on the technologies that will be needed to meet the demands of the new virtual and converged compute model described above, including Software Defined Networking, OpenFlow and Distributed Overlay Virtual Ethernet (DOVE) networks. For each of these technologies the workshop will analyze the problem and solution alternatives.
  
  The two major topics of interest are server virtualization infrastructure and physical switch virtualization infrastructure:
  
  Server virtualization infrastructure
  
  • Software Defined Networking
  • Server Input/Output Virtualization enhancements
  • Automation of virtual server network identity management
  • Enhanced virtual server network access and traffic controls
  • Networking technologies to enable server migration within an entire DC
  • Networking technologies to enable virtual server migration across DCs
  • Security plane infrastructure virtualization (e.g. Enhanced Virtual Appliances running in Server Virtual Machines)
  • Enhancements to virtual Ethernet switches used by virtualization intermediaries (e.g. Hypervisors)
  • IEEE 802.1Qbg Ethernet Virtual Bridging mechanisms (Virtual Ethernet Bridging, Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregation, Virtual Station Interfaces, Trivial TLV Transport Protocol)
  • IEEE 802.1Qbh Bridge Port Extension mechanisms
  • Offloading of virtual switching to external fabrics
  • Converged fabric reference services architectures
  • Future directions
  
  Virtual & converged fabric infrastructure
  
  • Overall network virtualization & performance
  • OpenFlow
  • Layer-2/3/+ fabric virtualization technologies (e.g. MPLS, VPLS, Switch Stacking and mechanisms that partition a single physical switch into multiple virtual switches)
  • Enhancements to convergence technologies (e.g. CEE, DCBX, iSCSI, NAS, FCoE, FC over MPLS)
  • Performance evaluation of converged iSCSI, NAS and emerging FCoE fabrics
  • Converged fabric security considerations
  • Transport stack options converging Inter-Process Communication (IPC) traffic
  • Additional Ethernet Quality of Service enhancements needed for converged environments
  • Performance and fault event management for converged fabrics
  • Converged fabric management infrastructure
  • Converged fabric reference services architectures
  • Future directions
  • Performance evaluation of RDMA over Ethernet technologies
  
  Paper Submission
  
  We invite submissions of technical papers, position papers, and case studies relevant to the workshop. Submission implies the willingness of at least one of the authors to present the paper and register. Submission should include on the front page the authors’ name, affiliations, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers.
  
  Please submit a full paper not exceeding 8 pages in IEEE in two-column 10pt PDF or Postscript format, page-numbered and suitable for printing on 8.5”x11” paper with at least 1 inch margin all around. Please submit the full paper for consideration to this workshop to Renato Recio (recio@us.ibm.com) by email.
  
  Important dates

  Deadline for submission	18 June 2012
  Notification of acceptance	31 July 2012
  Camera ready papers	24 September 2012
  Workshop date	26 October 2012

  
  Registration fees
  Workshop registration and payment will be managed by CNSM.
  
  Workshop Program Chair
  Renato Recio, IBM
  
  Proposed Committee Members
  Peter Ashwood-Smith, Huawei, China
  Paul Congdon, Hewlett-Packard Company, USA
  Uri Elzur, Intel, USA
  Mike Kagan, Mellanox, Israel
  Srikanth Kilaru, Juniper, USA
  Dhabaleswar Panda, Ohio State University, USA
  Rob Sherwood, BigSwitch, USA
  Pat Thaler, Broadcom, USA
  Suresh Vobbilisetty, Brocade, USA
  Manoj Wadekar, QLogic, USA