At the Huawei Intelligent Finance Summit 2021, Huawei launched the lossless 
Ethernet storage networking solution, NoF+. The solution implements end-to-end 
data acceleration in storage scenarios by leveraging OceanStor Dorado all-flash 
storage systems and CloudEngine data center storage network switches. It fully 
unlocks the potential of all-flash performance, and injects new momentum into 
fintech innovation.

As a frontrunner in digital transformation, the financial industry is moving 
toward omni-channel coverage. Finance Everywhere has become the catalyst for 
explosive data growth and data infrastructure innovation, and the all-flash 
trend is now unstoppable. Since 2018, the global shipment of all-flash (SSDs) 
has far exceeded that of traditional mechanical disks (HDDs), delivering a 100x 
increase in read and write performance. In addition, Fibre Channel (FC) storage 
networks fail to match the requirements for concurrent high-throughput 
read/write mode of all-flash storage using NVMe interfaces. Both bandwidth and 
latency have become storage performance bottlenecks. As such, storage services 
call for a faster and higher-quality network.

As Ethernet technologies have evolved, lossless Ethernet has solved the problem 
of storage performance fluctuation caused by packet loss. More importantly, the 
performance of 25/40/100G Ethernet is much higher than that of 32G FC, making 
lossless Ethernet an important area of development in the all-flash era. Now, 
vendors and customers are proactively pushing the maturity of the lossless 
Ethernet-based NVMe over Fabrics (NoF) network ecosystem to the next level.

Huawei's launch of the next-generation lossless Ethernet storage network 
solution NoF+ sits in line with the all-flash and all-IP trends of data center 
storage. Based on the intelligent lossless, perception, and collaboration 
features, the solution overcomes the packet loss challenges of traditional 
Ethernet and achieves high performance, high reliability, and easy O&M.

-Intelligent algorithms for 87% higher IOPS: Packet loss occurs on traditional 
Ethernet networks, where a packet loss of 0.1% decreases the network throughput 
by 50%. The Huawei NoF+ Solution includes an iLossless algorithm to achieve 
zero packet loss with 100% storage network throughput. Compared to FC, the IOPS 
improves by 87% and the latency reduces by 42%. In intra-city active-active 
scenarios, the solution uses 100GE links for 70 km lossless transmission, 
reducing cross-DC links by 90% compared to FC links. 

-Proactive fault detection and failover within one second: Traditional Ethernet 
networks lack proactive fault detection and notification mechanisms. When a 
fault occurs, link failover takes a long time, thus interrupting storage 
services. The NoF+ Solution provides intelligent perception capabilities, 
meaning that switches can proactively report faults within milliseconds and 
work with storage devices to implement failover within one second, without 
affecting storage services when a single point of network failure occurs. 

-Plug-and-play and one-click capacity expansion of storage: In storage 
scenarios, traditional Ethernet networks need to be manually configured node by 
node, which is a complex and error-prone process. The NoF+ Solution implements 
intelligent collaboration between storage devices and switches and supports 
plug-and-play and one-click capacity expansion of storage devices. Service 
changes can be automatically synchronized to the entire network after being 
configured at a single point, greatly improving the service provisioning 
efficiency.

Until now, the NoF+ Solution has been jointly innovated and commercially 
deployed in industries such as finance, carriers, and other enterprises. The 
solution takes full advantage of the million-level IOPS of all-flash storage 
and meets the petabyte-level development requirements of the financial 
industry. Looking forward, Huawei will continue to adhere to its 
customer-centric business strategy and work with partners to develop new and 
improve existing storage network practices. This will likely see Huawei surge 
to the forefront of all innovation across different industry scenarios, and 
make Huawei the first stop in enterprise digital transformation.

Source: Huawei

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   Link: https://iop.asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=393073

   Caption: Kevin Hu, President of Huawei Data Communication Product Line and 
Peter Zhou, President of Huawei IT Product Line jointly launch NoF+