What is good in modular routers these days?

Edward B. DREGER eddy+public+spam at noc.everquick.net
Mon Jul 20 12:02:06 UTC 2009


MA> Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 07:31:13 +0200 (CEST)
MA> From: Mikael Abrahamsson

MA> > With a little creativity, it can _almost_ be done for IPv4.
MA>
MA> That's most likely a big _almost_.

Maybe.  And maybe I'm using worst-case synthetic test sets in addition
to real routing sets.


MA> When someone asks for "2600 class router" they probably also want

"2600-like platform"

And I'm unaware of Cisco 2600-class routers that handle anywhere close
to 10 Gbps.


MA> WFQ/fairqueue/LLQ, L2TPv3, PPPoE and a heap of other things that
MA> impede pps quite a lot on a CPU based platform.

Perhaps the OP can clarify whether his omission of these was accidental,
because such features were assumed, or because he does not need them.


MA> If you can bring all (or most) of the IOS functionality into a modern Intel
MA> Xeon/i7 platform with all that memory access speed etc and you use all the
MA> cores efficiently, then you might be able to do a lot. I've heard a lot of

And minimize both task switching and packets' in-queue time.  I'm aware
of the requirements.


MA> claims before (Luleå Algorithm from Effnet for instance) but it never came

I was unaware of Lulea.  I've [obviously] not implemented it, and can't
comment on performance with modern loads and CPUs.  However, it's
encumbered -- although I question the patent-worthiness of what I see
described.  Route updates appear painful, which obviously would be
problematic.  (I went down the painful-updates fox hole half a dozen
years ago.  Yes, it's a dealbreaker.)

Other algorithms exist in the literature.

The truly insane might even be able to "strike gold" with a little
creativity.


MA> to much because functionality/stability is everything, if I want a stupid

We also could argue the stability of the routers that he has used, and
of COTS boxes.  I seem to recall having to load an interim IOS release
(on 2600-series boxes even!) due to instability.


MA> pps forwarding device I might as well get myself an L3 switch, it'll use
MA> less power and have less parts that can break.

Perhaps the OP can clarify his requirements.  I understood him to want
low cost and high PPS, with IPv6 being mandatory.  A list of priorities
and non-priorities might be useful.

I interpretted the post as being keen on high processing power and low
cost.

On a semi-related note: Has anyone dealt with Cavium (or similar) NICs?


Eddy
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