Zero-Copy Protocol for MPI Using InfiniBand Unreliable Datagram

Memory copies are widely regarded as detrimental to the overall performance of applications. High-performance systems make every effort to reduce the number of memory copies, especially the copies incurred during message passing. State of the art implementations of message-passing libraries, such as MPI, utilize user-level networking protocols to reduce or eliminate memory copies. InfiniBand is an emerging user-level networking technology that is gaining rapid acceptance in several domains, including HPC. In order to eliminate message copies while transferring large messages, MPI libraries over InfiniBand employ "Zero-copy" protocols which use Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA).