BK835A HPE 10GB Dual Port Converged Network Adapters

Overview of the Network Adapters

The HPE BK835A Converged Network Adapter is equipped with a remarkable feature - Dual Port. This means that the adapter comes with two separate ports, allowing users to connect multiple devices simultaneously. Whether you need to connect to multiple servers, storage devices, or other network resources, the Dual Port feature offers flexibility and convenience in managing your network connections.

Main Information

• Manufacturer: HPE 
• Part Number: BK835A 
• Product Type: Network Adapters

Technical Information

• Total Physical Ports: 2 independent, open physical transceiver slots
• Media Connection Type: Small Form-Factor Pluggable Plus (SFP+) structural cages
• Port Data Link Speed: 10 Gbps per port line rate
• Aggregate Theoretical Throughput: 20 Gbps combined bi-directional full-duplex capacity
• Supported Networking Protocols: Standard TCP/IP Ethernet, Hardware-accelerated iSCSI, and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
• Fabric Infrastructure Standards: Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) and Data Center Bridging (DCB)
• Network Remote Boot: Integrated Preboot Execution Environment (PXE 2.0)
• Storage Remote Boot: Native structural support for remote FCoE and iSCSI SAN initialization boot targets

IEEE Compliance & Framework Standards

• IEEE 802.1Q: Hardware-driven Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) tagging isolation
• IEEE 802.1p: Class of Service (CoS) traffic prioritization sequencing
• IEEE 802.3x: Dynamic global symmetric flow control implementation
• IEEE 802.3ad: Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) failover bonding
• IEEE 802.3ae: 10 Gigabit Ethernet over fiber validation standards
• IEEE 802.3ap: Backplane Ethernet structural standard compatibility
• IEEE 802.3az: Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) low-power operational scaling

Certified Server Hardware Compatibility

• HPE ProLiant Gen8 Chassis: Fully validated inside DL380p Gen8, DL360p Gen8, DL380e Gen8, DL560 Gen8, DL360e Gen8, ML350p Gen8, and DL385p Gen8 models.
• HPE ProLiant Gen7 Chassis: Certified for core compute platforms including lines.
• HPE Specialized Nodes: Compatible across DL160 Gen8, SL160z G6, SL170z G6, SL2x170z G6, and DL170e G6 high-density architectures.
• HPE Switch Interoperability: Formally tested and tuned against 

BK835A HPE 10GB Dual Port Converged Network Adapter

The BK835A HPE 10GB Dual Port Converged Network Adapter represents a high-performance networking category designed for enterprise data centers requiring unified connectivity, low-latency communication, and efficient hardware resource utilization. As part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s converged networking ecosystem, this adapter class integrates traditional Ethernet networking with storage and virtualization offload capabilities, enabling organizations to simplify infrastructure while maximizing throughput and scalability. The dual-port 10 Gigabit architecture is optimized for bandwidth-intensive workloads, virtualization environments, cloud infrastructure deployments, and mission-critical enterprise applications where network reliability and performance are essential.

Category Definition and Technical Positioning

The BK835A category falls under Converged Network Adapters (CNAs), which combine standard network interface card (NIC) functionality with storage protocol offloading capabilities such as iSCSI and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). This convergence reduces the need for separate host bus adapters (HBAs) and traditional Ethernet NICs, lowering hardware complexity and improving server efficiency. The 10GbE dual-port configuration ensures redundancy and load balancing, which are critical in high-availability environments such as virtualization clusters and enterprise storage networks.

HPE 10Gb Dual Port CNA Hardware Design

The hardware architecture of the BK835A adapter is engineered to handle simultaneous data streams with minimal packet loss and optimal throughput efficiency. Each port operates independently, enabling redundancy and improved failover capabilities. The adapter is typically designed with PCIe interface support, ensuring compatibility with modern HPE ProLiant servers and other enterprise-grade systems. Advanced silicon-level optimizations allow the adapter to manage protocol processing without heavily relying on the host CPU.

Dual Port Redundancy and Load Balancing

Dual-port functionality provides a significant advantage in enterprise environments where uptime is critical. Network administrators can configure active-active or active-passive modes depending on workload requirements. Load balancing across both ports ensures that traffic is evenly distributed, reducing congestion and preventing bottlenecks in high-throughput scenarios such as database replication, virtualization migration, and backup operations.

PCI Express Integration

The adapter typically leverages a PCI Express interface, which provides high-speed communication between the network card and the server motherboard. This integration ensures minimal latency and maximum data transfer rates, making it suitable for environments where microseconds matter, such as financial trading platforms, cloud-native applications, and real-time analytics systems.

10 Gigabit Ethernet Performance Characteristics

The BK835A category supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE), which is a major upgrade over traditional 1GbE infrastructure. This tenfold increase in bandwidth allows enterprises to handle significantly larger volumes of data traffic without network congestion. 10GbE is especially useful in data centers that support virtualization, high-performance computing (HPC), and storage replication.

Bandwidth Efficiency and Throughput Optimization

With 10GbE capabilities, organizations can consolidate multiple physical NICs into a single converged adapter, reducing cable complexity and switch port usage. This not only lowers operational costs but also improves airflow and energy efficiency in server racks. The high throughput ensures smooth data transfer for applications such as video streaming, large-scale backups, and distributed computing systems.

Latency Reduction Techniques

The adapter is engineered with low-latency processing paths that minimize packet inspection and routing delays. Hardware offloading of TCP/IP stack processing further reduces latency, enabling faster response times for applications requiring real-time data exchange.

Converged Networking Capabilities

One of the defining features of the BK835A HPE 10GB Dual Port Converged Network Adapter category is its ability to unify data networking and storage networking into a single hardware layer. This convergence simplifies data center architecture and reduces the need for multiple network interface cards and HBAs.

iSCSI Offload Support

iSCSI offloading allows the adapter to handle storage traffic directly at the hardware level, reducing CPU overhead and improving storage performance. This is particularly beneficial for SAN environments where multiple servers access centralized storage systems simultaneously.

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)

FCoE support enables Fibre Channel storage traffic to be transmitted over Ethernet networks, eliminating the need for separate Fibre Channel infrastructure. This reduces costs while maintaining enterprise-level storage performance and reliability.

Virtualization and Cloud Optimization

The BK835A category is widely used in virtualization environments such as VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V, and KVM platforms. The dual-port design and hardware acceleration features ensure optimal performance for virtual machines, containers, and cloud workloads.

VM Density and Resource Allocation

By offloading networking tasks to dedicated hardware, more CPU resources are available for virtual machines. This increases VM density per host and improves overall infrastructure efficiency. Enterprises can run more workloads on fewer physical servers, reducing capital and operational expenses.

Virtual Switching Integration

The adapter supports integration with virtual switches, allowing seamless communication between virtual machines and physical networks. This ensures consistent performance across hybrid environments where workloads move between on-premises and cloud infrastructures.

Enterprise Data Center Use Cases

The BK835A HPE 10GB Dual Port CNA category is widely deployed in enterprise data centers for a variety of mission- critical applications. Its versatility makes it suitable for industries such as finance, healthcare, education, telecommunications, and government infrastructure.

High-Performance Computing (HPC)

HPC environments require rapid data exchange between compute nodes. The 10GbE dual-port architecture ensures efficient inter-node communication, reducing processing delays and improving computational throughput for scientific simulations, AI training, and engineering workloads.

Database and Transaction Systems

Database servers benefit significantly from low-latency, high-bandwidth connectivity. The adapter ensures fast query responses, efficient replication, and stable transaction processing in high-demand environments such as banking systems and e-commerce platforms.

Cloud Infrastructure Deployment

Cloud service providers rely on converged networking adapters to support multi-tenant environments. The BK835A category enables efficient resource sharing while maintaining network isolation and performance consistency across tenants.

Network Teaming Configuration

Network teaming allows both ports to function together for redundancy and load balancing. Proper configuration ensures uninterrupted connectivity in case of port failure, improving system resilience.

Performance Optimization Strategies

To maximize the efficiency of the BK835A HPE 10GB Dual Port Converged Network Adapter, several optimization strategies can be applied at both hardware and software levels.

Jumbo Frames Support

Enabling jumbo frames reduces CPU overhead by allowing larger packet sizes, improving throughput for large data transfers such as backups and storage replication.

TCP Offload Engine Utilization

The TCP Offload Engine (TOE) reduces CPU workload by handling TCP/IP processing directly on the adapter, freeing server resources for application processing.

Security and Data Integrity Features

Security is a critical aspect of enterprise networking. The BK835A category incorporates hardware-level features designed to protect data integrity and ensure secure communication between servers and storage systems.

Checksum Offloading

Checksum offloading ensures data integrity by verifying packet accuracy at the hardware level, reducing the risk of corrupted transmissions and improving reliability.

Network Isolation Support

VLAN tagging and network segmentation capabilities allow administrators to isolate traffic streams, improving security and performance in multi-tenant environments.

Reliability, Redundancy, and Fault Tolerance

The dual-port design inherently supports redundancy, ensuring continuous operation even in the event of hardware or network failures. This is essential for mission-critical systems that require 24/7 uptime.

Failover Mechanisms

Automatic failover ensures that if one port becomes unavailable, traffic is immediately redirected to the second port without service interruption.

Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)

LACP enables dynamic link aggregation, improving bandwidth utilization and providing additional fault tolerance.

Energy Efficiency 

Modern data centers prioritize energy efficiency, and the BK835A category is designed with low-power consumption in mind. By consolidating networking and storage functions into a single adapter, overall power usage is reduced.

Heat Dissipation Optimization

Efficient thermal design ensures stable performance even under heavy workloads, reducing the risk of overheating and hardware degradation.

Scalability and Infrastructure Growth

As organizations grow, their networking requirements increase. The BK835A HPE 10GB Dual Port CNA category supports scalable deployment strategies, allowing enterprises to expand their infrastructure without major architectural changes.

Modular Expansion

Additional adapters can be deployed across server clusters to increase total network capacity and redundancy, ensuring seamless scalability.