RDMATransport

RDMATransport, or Remote Direct Memory Access Transport, is a high-performance networking protocol designed to facilitate direct data transfer between the memory of different computers connected over a network. It is particularly well-suited for high-bandwidth, low-latency applications, such as those found in scientific computing, financial services, and data center environments. RDMATransport operates over InfiniBand, a high-speed communication link between computers, and is supported by various operating systems and hardware platforms.

The protocol enables direct memory access (DMA) operations, allowing data to be transferred directly between the memory of two computers without involving the CPU. This capability significantly reduces the overhead associated with traditional networking protocols, resulting in improved performance and efficiency. RDMATransport supports various types of data transfers, including send/receive, read/write, and atomic operations, making it versatile for a wide range of applications.

One of the key advantages of RDMATransport is its ability to offload the processing of network packets from the CPU to specialized network interface cards (NICs). This offloading frees up CPU resources, allowing applications to focus on computation rather than data movement. Additionally, RDMATransport supports advanced features such as memory registration, which allows the NIC to directly access application memory, further enhancing performance.

RDMATransport is widely used in high-performance computing (HPC) clusters, where it enables efficient data sharing and communication between nodes. It is also employed in financial services for low-latency trading applications and in data centers for storage area networks (SANs) and other high-throughput data transfer scenarios. The protocol's ability to provide high bandwidth and low latency makes it an essential component in modern computing environments that require fast and reliable data transfer.