Another smart switch-edge Switch

Source: Internet
Author: User

In addition to connecting to the same type of network, edge switches can also interconnect different types of networks, such as Ethernet and Fast Ethernet. I hope this article will help you.

With the development of the communication industry, people have higher requirements for intelligence. As a representative of smart exchange devices, edge switches are gradually increasing in market demand. If the edge devices of the network integrate QoS, rate limit, ACL, PBR, and sFlow into the hardware chip, the Intelligence will not affect the line rate forwarding performance of the basic layer 2 and Layer 3,

Therefore, the end-to-end smart network can be carried out on a large scale, so that the entire network not only has global connection capabilities, but also has global network intelligence. From the past to the present, there have been several different ideas in the network design philosophy.

Based on the two key points of tpassthrough and intelligence, the different degree of emphasis affects the Network Design: tpassthrough emphasizes connection capabilities, simple management, and low costs; intelligent emphasizes control and value-added capabilities, therefore, most of them are complex and cost-effective. In fact, the design is not competitive, only depends on the actual needs of users and budget.

Therefore, the network architecture can be a layer-2 architecture with poor scalability, or a layer-3 architecture with high prices; most of the plans will strike a certain balance between the two, which leads to two different architectures-fold backbone network architecture and distributed backbone network architecture. The folding backbone intelligently shrinks to the upper-layer aggregation device, while the access device on the lower layer only emphasizes passthrough and wire speed. From the perspective of intelligent control, this is a centralized design.

The two architectures have significant differences on the network edge. The folding backbone uses layer-2 switching as the edge, while the distributed backbone uses layer-3 switching as the edge. If the intelligence of the network is determined simply by switching or routing, of course, layer-3 switching is better than layer-2 switching.

However, as more and more businesses are activated on the same network, the intelligent problem of the network is no longer simply determined by Layer 2/Layer 3. More often, the security shielding capability, network traffic statistics and monitoring capabilities, and Policy Routing PBR support the QoS capability, the ability to provide the specified access rate, and the ACL Access Control List.

Can more effectively determine the intelligence of the network. Therefore, the edge Layer 2 switching equipment in a foldable backbone is an edge Layer 3 switching equipment in a distributed backbone. Among the Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching equipment of many manufacturers, users can make clearer choices based on their actual business needs.

QoS execution capability

In multimedia services, data, voice, and images have different requirements for latency, jitter, and packet loss. In order to better execute multimedia services, it is best for users to add QoS tags to the data packets, edge switches, read QoS and execute them, or for untrusted sources, this method is used to classify duplicate rows, Mark QoS with duplicate rows, and execute them.

QoS has a layer-2 CoS service level in the past) or a layer-3 IP PrecedenceIP priority level), but now it emphasizes the support capability of differential service DiffSew. Therefore, edge switches play a critical role in end-to-end QoS support as QoS inbound or outbound sites. Hardware Support for DiffSew is one of the key functions of the switch.

Capability of specified access rate

Although the popularization of Gigabit Ethernet makes backbone networks have ample bandwidth, such resources are not inexhaustible. In addition, it is the most feasible method to control the effective use of edge bandwidth. Therefore, the edge switch interface is used.

Not only do we need to provide 10 MB and MB setting capabilities, but we also need to provide speed limits based on port, priority level, VLAN, and ACL classification, and it is best to allow inbound or outbound traffic to implement rate limits, the range is from kb to kb, And the granularity is about KB.

Survey on Application Smart edge Switches

It must be emphasized that the hardware processing requires that edge devices do not affect their ability to forward data packets at the wire speed due to the startup speed limit, which is an important performance indicator for edge devices. With the complete speed limit function without affecting network performance indicators, You can effectively manage network bandwidth resources.

Security shielding capability of ACL

In the network, the ACL not only allows network administrators to set network policies, but also allows or denies the control of individual users or specific data streams. It can also be used to enhance network security shielding. From simple Ping to Death attacks and TCP Sync attacks.

Until more diverse and complex hacker attacks, ACL can be blocked. Two types of ACLs are available: Standard ACL and extended ACLExtended ACL. Whether the edge is an edge switch or a layer-3 switch, it is best to support standard ACL and extended ACL, in order to distribute the security shield and policy execution capabilities of the network to the edge of the network.

Like speed limits, network devices should not only be able to execute complete ACL functions, including inbound and outbound capabilities, but must also emphasize the hardware processing capabilities. In this way, when the ACL is enabled, the ability of Layer 2 or Layer 3 switching devices to forward packets at the same time will not be affected.

Generally, whether it is through the RIP, OSPF, BGP, or MPLS tag protocol, the route path is mostly determined by the destination address. Therefore, the network traffic cannot be effectively distributed, or set a policy for network traffic. However, the Policy Routing Capability is sometimes one of the necessary functions in today's diversified network environments.

For example, in the environment of a large network operator NSP, different users need to be connected to different Internet carrier ISPs); or on the campus network, users who serve as teaching research must be connected to high-speed network outlets.

However, dormitory network users are usually guided to lower-speed outlets, so that the shunting will not affect the research performance of the campus network, high-speed/low-speed egress can be allocated to the corresponding traffic, so that the bandwidth application can be effectively allocated.

To achieve this sort of traffic, generally the route cannot be achieved. Only by routing PBR through the Policy, the source address can be classified and the IP address of the next hop exit can be determined, this is also the difference between policy routing and General Routing: Route Selection Based on source address information, rather than Route Selection Based on target address information.

A policy route can be used not only to select routes and distribute routes based on the user type, but also to specify routes or distribute routes based on the service type. The specific method is to look at the layer-3 IP address, the layer-4 IP port number, and different services to guide different routes.

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