arXiv:2608.07733cs.DCcs.AI2026-08

用智能网卡加速大规模图神经网络训练,降低跨节点通信开销。

LGNNIC: Acceleration of Large-Scale GNN Training using SmartNICs

论文配图:LGNNIC: Acceleration of Large-Scale GNN Training using SmartNICs
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 将邻居采样和量化任务移至远程内存的智能网卡上处理
  • 相比传统方式,训练速度最高提升62.4倍,数据传输量显著减少
  • 适合需要高效分布式GNN训练的研究者与工业部署场景

图神经网络(GNN)广泛应用于自然科学、社交网络分析、芯片设计和推荐系统等领域。随着图规模增长,单机CPU-GPU系统难以承载存储与计算需求。一种可行方案是将图分布于多个远程内存节点,但训练时跨节点网络拥堵成为主要瓶颈。为此,我们提出LGNNIC,一种利用与远程内存节点共置的智能网卡(SmartNIC)的新架构,以降低分布式GNN训练中的通信开销。该系统将关键预处理任务卸载至智能网卡,减少传输至计算节点的数据量,缓解网络拥塞。在预处理阶段引入两种互补技术:邻居采样(用于生成小批量数据)和采样批次的量化。为评估不同通信基础设施下的性能,我们设计了低开销的基于DMA同步机制与高开销的套接字基准方案。使用包含一个带有NVIDIA BlueField-2智能网卡的远程内存节点和一个A100 GPU计算节点的原型系统,在标准GNN工作负载和采样超参数下测试核心卸载机制。结果表明,远程节点上的邻居采样与量化均带来显著加速:采用套接字时,邻居采样最高提速62.4倍,采用DOCA-DMA时达17.5倍,主要源于数据传输时间减少;量化进一步带来最高3.6倍和1.3倍的加速,归因于数据量降低。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are widely used across domains such as natural sciences, social network analysis, chip design, and recommendation systems. However, as graph sizes grow, storing and processing them entirely on a single-node CPU-GPU system becomes increasingly impractical. A promising approach is to distribute the graph across multiple remote memory nodes, though this introduces a major bottleneck: inter-node network congestion during training. To address this, we propose LGNNIC, a novel inter-node system architecture that leverages SmartNICs co-located with remote memory nodes-a configuration already available in modern systems-to reduce communication overhead in distributed GNN training. LGNNIC offloads key preprocessing tasks to SmartNICs, reducing the volume of data transferred to computational (training) nodes and alleviating network congestion. We introduce two complementary techniques executed on the SmartNICs during the preprocessing phase: Neighbor Sampling, which performs mini-batch sampling, and Quantization of the sampled batches. To evaluate LGNNIC under different communication infrastructures, we designed both an optimized low-overhead DMA-based synchronization mechanism and a high-overhead socket-based alternative used as a benchmark. We evaluate the core SmartNIC offloading mechanisms across standard GNN workloads and sampling hyperparameters using a proof-of-concept (PoC) system comprising one remote-memory node with an NVIDIA BlueField-2 SmartNIC and one compute node with an A100 GPU. Both Neighbor Sampling and Quantization on the remote node demonstrated substantial training speedups in most configurations. Neighbor Sampling achieved up to 62.4x and 17.5x speedups with Sockets and DOCA-DMA, respectively, primarily due to reduced data transaction time. Quantization provided additional speedups of up to 3.6x and 1.3x, respectively, by reducing data transfer.

图神经网络智能网卡分布式训练通信优化

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