Ethernet, RoCE, or InfiniBand? Designing the Network Fabric for Enterprise AI

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of network fabric options for enterprise AI workloads, focusing on Ethernet, RoCEv2, and InfiniBand. It argues that no single fabric is universally superior; instead, architects must classify traffic types and workload communication patterns. Ethernet is sufficient for management, inference, and storage flows, while RDMA fabrics like RoCEv2 or InfiniBand become critical for multi-node training with frequent all-reduce operations. The article emphasizes the importance of congestion engineering for RoCE and operational considerations for InfiniBand, offering practical guidance for selecting the right fabric based on workload needs and organizational capabilities.