RAS enhancements for RDMA communications

textEthernet as the communication medium in the enterprise data center has outlived all competing mediums and resisted the test of time with regards to speed and costs. The future is also poised for growth with 40 and 100Gps speeds just over horizon. The current state of the technology is being enhanced and extended with lossless features to allow for fabric convergence of Storage and Inter Process Communication (IPC) Networks. It is under this medium that an increase in the adoption of Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) over Ethernet using offloaded TCP/IP (iWARP) and Infiniband over Ethernet (RoCE) communication stacks to RDMA capable NIC adapter s (RNIC) is observed. RDMA enables direct application to application communication over the network resulting in numerous and significant benefits such as reduced CPU utilization, lower latency communications, increased energy efficiency, and reduced overall system requirements. However, with said benefits also comes increased software complexity in how RDMA interface users communicate. The RDMA communication semantics, which originate from the HPC domain, are heavily biased towards Low-Latency and High-Bandwidth communications rather than Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability (RAS). As adoption increases, and enterprise data centers begins to leverage RDMA over Ethernet, enhancements to the OS stack software architecture and design of the components involved is required to address these deficiencies. Operating system interfaces, device drivers, adapter hardware design, and embedded firmware features must be viewed from a high-availability and maintainability point of view. RAS enhancements for RDMA communications proposes the software architectural tradeoffs for enhancing the iWARP and RoCE RDMA implementations for communications in the enterprise data center, with new and traditional RAS features for existing communications stacks and devices. The architecture leverages software enhancements in traceability, availability, maintainability, serviceability, fault-isolation and resource management; such that in the advent of errors, the probability that the forensics data points to identify root cause are immediately and automatically available is increased.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Strategy Options for Disaster Risk Reduction Through Institutional Improvements and Enhanced Financial Sustainability: Recommendations

This presentation was commissioned by the Natural Disaster Network of the Regional Policy Dialogue for the V Hemispheric Meeting celebrated on June 13th and 14th, 2005.Disasters, Management Network Gestión de la Red

Measuring the risk management in Latin America

El paradigma de la gestión integral del riesgo y su enfoque conceptual –económico, social y ambiental– que lo subyace, han evolucionado desde el punto de vista teórico de una manera notable en la última década. En particular, el aporte de la Red de Estudios Sociales en Prevención de Desastres en América Latina (La RED) y de un amplio número de investigadores de la región –que ha abordado la temática de los desastres desde la perspectiva del desarrollo– ha planteado la necesidad de superar los enfoques asistencialistas o puramente tecnocráticos, sobre los cuales, la gestión se ha desarrollado en el pasado, para lograr un avance real en la temática, en el contexto del subdesarrollo. Esta nueva visión, aunque de manera diferencial e incipiente, ha sido adoptada por los países de la región de América Latina y el Caribe, convirtiéndose, en algunos casos, en una nueva política de desarrollo y en tema de especial interés para los organismos multilaterales, como el BID, el Banco Mundial y las agencias de Naciones Unidas. El Instituto de Estudios Ambientales (IDEA) de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Manizales, formuló recientemente un Sistema de Indicadores de Riesgo y Gestión del Riesgo para las Américas, con el apoyo del BID, con el fin de iniciar un monitoreo de la gestión del riesgo en la región. Este sistema incluyó entre sus indicadores el Índice de Gestión del Riesgo (IGR), mediante el cual se hizo una primera “medición” del desempeño y la efectividad de la gestión del riesgo, subdividiendo dicha gestión en cuatro componentes o líneas de acción. Este documento presenta algunas reflexiones sobre el tema y los resultados obtenidos del IGR para América Latina y el Caribe.The paradigm of integrated risk management and its economic, social and environmental framework have had a remarkable evolution from theoretical point of view in the last decade. Particularly, the contribution of the Network for Social Studies on Disaster Prevention in Latin America (La RED) and from a large number of researchers in the region –that have addressed the issue of disaster from the perspective of development– have to pose the need to overcome the purely humanitarian and technocratic approaches, on which management has been developed in the past, in order to achieve real progress in the context of developing countries. This new vision, even if differential and incipient, has been adopted by the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, becoming in some cases a new development policy and a subject of particular interest for multilateral agencies, as the IDB, the World Bank and UN agencies. The Institute for Environmental Studies (IDEA) of the National University of Colombia, Manizales, recently made a System of Indicators of Disaster Risk and Risk Management for the Americas, with the support of the IDB, in order to initiate a monitoring of risk management in the region. This system included among other indicators the Risk Management Index (RMI), which made a first "measurement" of the performance and the effectiveness of risk management, addressing four subcomponents or courses of action. This document presents some reflections on the subject and the results of the RMI for Latin America and the Caribbean.Peer Reviewe

Revealing the socioeconomic impact of small disasters in Colombia using the DesInventar database

Small disasters are usually the product of climate variability and climate change. Analysis of them illustrates that they increase difficulties for local development—frequently affecting the livelihoods of poor people and perpetuating their level of poverty and human insecurity—and entail challenges for a country’s development. In contrast to extreme events, small disasters are often invisible at the national level and their effects are not considered as relevant from a macroeconomic standpoint. Nevertheless, their accumulated impact causes economic, environmental and social problems. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of the DesInventar database, developed in 1994 by the Network for Social Studies in Disaster Prevention in Latin America. In addition, it proposes a new version of the Local Disaster Index developed in 2005 within the framework of the Disaster Risk and Management Indicators Program for the Americas, with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank

Comparing observed damages and losses with modelled ones using a probabilistic approach: the Lorca 2011 case

A loss and damage assessment was performed for the buildings of Lorca, Spain, considering an earthquake hazard scenario with similar characteristics to those of a real event which occurred on May 11th, 2011, in terms of epicentre, depth and magnitude while also considering the local soil response. This low-to moderate earthquake caused severe damage and disruption in the region and especially on the city. A building by building resolution database was developed and used for damage and loss assessment. The portfolio of buildings was characterized by means of indexes capturing information from a structural point of view such as age, main construction materials, number of stories, and building class as well as others related to age and vulnerability classes. A replacement cost approach was selected for the analysis in order to calculate the direct losses incurred by the event. Seismic hazard and vulnerability were modelled in a probabilistic way, considering their inherent uncertainties which were also taken into account in the damage and loss calculation process. Losses have been expressed in terms of the mean damage ratio of each dwelling and since the analysis has been performed on a geographical information system platform, the distribution of the damage and its categories was mapped for the entire urban centre. The simulated damages and losses were compared with the observed ones reported by the local authorities and institutions that inspected the city after the event.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Estimation of Probabilistic Seismic Losses and the Public Economic Resilience—An Approach for a Macroeconomic Impact Evaluation

The Disaster Deficit Index (DDI) measures country risk from a macroeconomic and financial perspective, according to possible catastrophic events. The DDI captures the relationship between the demand for contingent resources to cover the maximum probable losses and the public sector’s economic resilience; that is, the availability of internal and external funds for restoring affected inventories. For calculating potential losses, the model follows the insurance industry in establishing a probable loss, based on the critical impacts during a given period of exposure, and for the economic resilience the model computes the country’s financial ability to cope with the situation taking into account: the insurance and reinsurance payments; the reserve funds for disasters; the funds that may be received as aid and donations; the possible value of new taxes; the margin for budgetary reallocations; the feasible value of external credit; and the internal credit the country may obtain. Access to these resources has limitations and costs that must be taken into account as feasible values according to the macroeconomic and financial conditions of the country. This article presents the model of DDI and proposes it as a simple way of measuring a country’s fiscal exposure and potential deficit—or contingency liabilities—in case of extreme disasters to guide the governmental decisionmaking from economic, financial, and disaster risk reduction perspectives

Gestión del riesgo de desastres: de lo local a lo global Un marco conceptual en una ciudad laboratorio

El paradigma de la gestión integral del riesgo y el enfoque conceptual económico, social y ambiental que lo sostiene ha evolucionado, desde el punto de vista teórico, de una manera notable en las últimas tres décadas. Particularmente, el aporte de la Red de Estudios Sociales en Prevención de Desastres en América Latina (La Red) y de un gran número de investigadores que ha abordado la temática de los desastres desde la perspectiva del desarrollo ha planteado la necesidad de superar los enfoques asistencialistas o puramente tecnocráticos, para lograr un avance real en el contexto del desarroll

Medición de la gestión del riesgo en América Latina

The paradigm of integrated risk management and its economic, social and environmental framework have had a remarkable evolution from theoretical point of view in the last decade. Particularly, the contribution of the Network for Social Studies on Disaster Prevention in Latin America (La RED) and from a large number of researchers in the region –that have addressed the issue of disaster from the perspective of development– have to pose the need to overcome the purely humanitarian and technocratic approaches, on which management has been developed in the past, in order to achieve real progress in the context of developing countries. This new vision, even if differential and incipient, has been adopted by the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, becoming in some cases a new development policy and a subject of particular interest for multilateral agencies, as the IDB, the World Bank and UN agencies. The Institute for Environmental Studies (IDEA) of the National University of Colombia, Manizales, recently made a System of Indicators of Disaster Risk and Risk Management for the Americas, with the support of the IDB, in order to initiate a monitoring of risk management in the region. This system included among other indicators the Risk Management Index (RMI), which made a first measurement of the performance and the effectiveness of risk management, addressing four subcomponents or courses of action. This document presents some reflections on the subject and the results of the RMI for Latin America and the Caribbean

“Midiendo lo Inmedible” Indicadores de Vulnerabilidad y Riesgo

A mediados de octubre de 2005 se celebró en la Universidad de Bonn, Alemania, la segunda reunión del grupo de trabajo de expertos en vulnerabilidad bajo la coordinación del Institute for Environment and Human Security (EHS) de la Universidad de las Naciones Unidas, en el marco de la “6th Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Research Community” que promovió IHDP

Indicadores de riesgo de desastre y de gestión de riesgo

Los desastres son eventos socioambientales cuya materialización es el resultado de la construcción social del riesgo. El propósito del sistema de indicadores propuesto en el presente trabajo es dimensionar la vulnerabilidad y el riesgo, usando índices relativos a escala nacional, para facilitar a los tomadores de decisiones de cada país tener acceso a información relevante que les permita identificar y proponer acciones efectivas de gestión del riesgo, considerando aspectos macroeconómicos, sociales, institucionales y técnicos. Este sistema de indicadores permite representar el riesgo y su gestión a escala nacional, facilitando la identificación de los aspectos esenciales que lo caracterizan desde una perspectiva económica y social, así como también comparar estos aspectos o el riesgo mismo de los diferentes países estudiados.Medio ambiente y recursos naturales :: Desastres naturales, Environment, disaster risk, risk management