Routers in Data Centers

Fri Sep 24 17:16:23 UTC 2010

the power/cooling budget for a rack full of router vs a rack
full of cores might be distinction to make.  I know that 
historically, the data center operator made no distinction
and a client decided to "push past the envelope" and replaced
their kit with space heaters.  most data centers now are fairly
restrictive on the power/cooling budget for a given footprint.

--bill

On Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 01:08:23PM -0400, Warren Kumari wrote:
> 
> On Sep 24, 2010, at 6:22 AM, Venkatesh Sriram wrote:
> 
> >Hi,
> >
> >Can somebody educate me on (or pass some pointers) what differentiates
> >a router operating and optimized for data centers versus, say a router
> >work in the metro ethernet space? What is it thats required for
> >routers operating in data centers? High throughput, what else?
> 
> 
> While this question has many dimensions and there is no real  
> definition of either I suspect that what many people mean when they  
> talk about a DC routers is:
> Primarily Ethernet interfaces
> High port density
> Designed to deal with things like VRRP / VLAN / ethernet type features.
> Possibly CAM based, possibly smaller buffers.
> Less likely to be taking full routes.
> 
> This is very similar to the religious debate about "What's the  
> difference between a 'real' router and a L3 switch?"
> 
> Just my 2 cents.
> W
> 
> 
> >
> >Thanks, Venkatesh
> >
> 
> --
> Consider orang-utans.
> In all the worlds graced by their presence, it is suspected that they  
> can talk but choose not to do so in case humans put them to work,  
> possibly in the television industry. In fact they can talk. It's just  
> that they talk in Orang-utan. Humans are only capable of listening in  
> Bewilderment.
> -- Terry Practhett
> 
> 