Automated Network Performance Characterization for HPC Systems

Abstract

In this work, we propose the Network Performance Collector (NPC) workflow for automated network performance characterization. The workflow is based on the collection, processing as well as visualization of network performance metrics such as throughput and latency and can be used for analysis with different network performance models. Depending on the chosen model, benchmark tools such as iperf or sockperf as well as microbenchmarks specific to parallel programming models can be automated and orchestrated for data collection with the NPC. The data obtained can then be used by NPC, for example, to validate and characterize the performance of the underlying network or to analyze the system boundaries for a particular application. We provide a prototype implementation of the proposed workflow and demonstrate its effectiveness by automating an extended Roofline model analysis.