Optimized Design of Non-Transparent Bridge for Heterogeneous Interconnects in Hyper-converged Infrastructure

ObjectiveThe integration of heterogeneous computing resource clusters into modern Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) systems imposes stricter performance requirements in latency, bandwidth, throughput, and cross-domain transmission stability. Traditional HCI systems primarily rely on the Ethernet TCP/IP protocol, which exhibits inherent limitations, including low bandwidth efficiency, high latency, and limited throughput. Existing PCIe Switch products typically employ Non-Transparent Bridges (NTBs) for conventional dual-system connections or intra-server communication; however, they do not meet the performance demands of heterogeneous cross-domain transmission within HCI environments. To address this limitation, a novel Dual-Mode Non-Transparent Bridge Architecture (D-MNTBA) is proposed to support dual transmission modes. D-MNTBA combines a fast transmission mode via a bypass mechanism with a stable transmission mode derived from the Traditional Data Path Architecture (TDPA), thereby aligning with the data characteristics and cross-domain streaming demands of HCI systems. Hardware-level enhancements in address and ID translation schemes enable D-MNTBA to support more complex mappings while minimizing translation latency. These improvements increase system stability and effectively support the cross-domain transmission of heterogeneous data in HCI systems.MethodsTo overcome the limitations of traditional single-pass architectures and the bypass optimizations of the TDPA, the proposed D-MNTBA incorporates both a fast transmission path and a stable transmission path. This dual-mode design enables the NTB to leverage the data characteristics of HCI systems for telegram-based streaming, thereby reducing dependence on intermediate protocols and data format conversions. The stable transmission mode ensures reliable message delivery, while the fast transmission mode—enhanced through hardware-level optimizations in address and ID translation—supports high-real-time cross-domain communication. This combination improves overall transmission performance by reducing both latency and system overhead. To meet the low-latency demands of the bypass transmission path, the architecture implements hardware-level enhancements to the address and ID conversion modules. The address translation module is expanded with a larger lookup table, allowing for more complex and flexible mapping schemes. This enhancement enables efficient utilization of non-contiguous and fragmented address spaces without compromising performance. Simultaneously, the ID conversion module is optimized through multiple conversion strategies and streamlined logic, significantly reducing the time required for ID translation.Results and DiscussionsAddress translation in the proposed D-MNTBA is validated through emulation within a constructed HCI environment. The simulation log for indirect address translation shows no errors or deadlocks, and successful hits are observed on BAR2/3. During dual-host disk access, packet header addresses and payload content remain consistent, with no packet loss detected (Fig. 14), indicating that indirect address translation is accurately executed under D-MNTBA. ID conversion performance is evaluated by comparing the proposed architecture with the TDPA implemented in the PEX8748 chip. The switch based on D-MNTBA exhibits significantly shorter ID conversion times. A maximum reduction of approximately 34.9% is recorded, with an ID conversion time of 71 ns for a 512-Byte payload (Fig. 15). These findings suggest that the ID function mapping method adopted in D-MNTBA effectively reduces conversion latency and enhances system performance. Throughput stability is assessed under sustained heavy traffic with payloads ranging from 256 to 2 048 Bytes. The maximum throughputs of D-MNTBA, the Ethernet card, and PEX8748 are measured at 1.36 GB/s, 0.97 GB/s, and 0.9 GB/s, respectively (Fig. 16). Compared to PEX8748 and the Ethernet architecture, D-MNTBA improves throughput by approximately 51.1% and 40.2%, respectively, and shows the slowest degradation trend, reflecting superior stability in heterogeneous cross-domain transmission. Bandwidth comparison reveals that D-MNTBA outperforms TDPA and the Ethernet card, with bandwidth improvements of approximately 27.1% and 19.0%, respectively (Fig. 17). These results highlight the significant enhancement in cross-domain transmission performance achieved by the proposed architecture in heterogeneous environments.ConclusionsThis study proposes a Dual-Mode D-MNTBA to address the challenges of heterogeneous interconnection in HCI systems. By integrating a fast transmission path enabled by a bypass architecture with the stable transmission path of the TDPA, D-MNTBA accommodates the specific data characteristics of cross-domain transmission in heterogeneous environments and enables efficient message routing. D-MNTBA enhances transmission stability while improving system-wide performance, offering robust support for high-real-time cross-domain transmission in HCI. It also reduces latency and overhead, thereby improving overall transmission efficiency. Compared with existing transmission schemes, D-MNTBA achieves notable gains in performance, making it a suitable solution for the demands of heterogeneous domain interconnects in HCI systems. However, the architectural enhancements, particularly the bypass design and associated optimizations, increase logic resource utilization and power consumption. Future work should focus on refining hardware design, layout, and wiring strategies to reduce logic complexity and resource consumption without compromising performance.