re: Nexabit NX64000 routing and other processing speeds
Clay, after some further research on the NX-64000 by Nexabit, it appears that they are prepared to make good on their claims of being able to map IP onto OC192 flows. I am not entirely comfortable, however, with their Layer 1/2-centric focus in their treatment of flows, and by their lack of language on Layer 3 RFCs (IETF "standards"), and just how they will address route lookup and policy decision-making processes.
Note, the problem does not center on merely mapping IP onto Sonet. If the data is prepared and all that is required is mapping traffic onto a route, this is a no brainer. It's simply sent serially, just like anything else. The problems that do exist, however, is when a vendor claims to be able to do 'route lookup and other interanl processing' at these speeds, as I've enumerated here. That's where the problems are. Or, that's where their problems are no longer. I don't know. Maybe NX has jumped over these issues in some way. That remains to be seen, as far as I'm concerned.
The reasons for my skepticism go beyond the obvious. In other sources I've read, they not only claim to be able to jump to 192, but they are also talking about 768 as though it were in the immediate offing, and then 3072, over the horizon. Now, that's fast processing speed, if Layer 3 processing is indeed what they are talking about.
They may just be holding this information close to the vest, I don't know at this point, since my data is limited to their public statements and web site documents and white papers, and some other information which I've been able to obtain, elsewhere. I was hoping that the latter would have been clearer on some of these items of interest, but they were likewise, vague.
My skepticism was/is largely due to the hard times that others have had in getting beyond the OC12 bogie, although OC48 is now becoming commonplace among the larger players, they claim, where actual software processes and other time consuming processing speeds are concerned.
The board level architectures of the NX are not clear to me. And the means by which they partition routing modules, even logically, from forwarding and internal administration, are what I'd like more information on. If you or anyone else has data re these attributes, please post. Or, any comments on the above, at all.Thanks.
Regards, Frank Coluccio |
