Backbone switch View 4 points

Backbone switches are responsible for important tasks in the network. When purchasing a backbone switch, there are four factors to consider about the product itself: performance, reliability, scalability, and QoS.

High Performance
High performance/capacity is the most important indicator for backbone switches. The switch's duty is to forward data packets, and the backbone switch bears a particularly large amount of traffic, so this is the first indicator to be concerned during the purchase.

The main performance indicators include backplane capacity, port capacity, and packet forwarding rate. The packet forwarding rate of a backbone switch is generally more than dozens of Mpps. For example, the packet forwarding rate of annett's SwitchBlade 4008 and Huawei's S8016 is 96 Mpps. To achieve this forwarding capability, the backplane capacity is generally above Gbps, otherwise it cannot have the line speed capability. In addition, the backbone switch should have a large port capacity and sufficient port density. To ensure performance, backbone switches generally adopt a distributed architecture and use ASIC chips for forwarding and other functions. In addition, the backbone switch should have multi-layer switching capabilities.
Reliability depends on redundancy
For backbone switches, reliability and stability are critical. To achieve sufficient reliability, we need to avoid a single point of failure. The redundant design is adopted. In particular, the most critical components-power supply, switching matrix, and control engine-must adopt Redundancy Design. In addition, the ability to support live hot swapping is also very useful. It should be pointed out that there are multiple redundant backup methods, such as "1 + 1" and "n + 1". Enterprise Users should choose based on their own needs and do not blindly pursue maximum reliability. After all, the enterprise network is not a telecom network. The so-called telecom-level reliability is not necessarily necessary, and too high redundancy will undoubtedly increase costs.
Scalability Protection Investment
The real significance of scalability is to achieve investment protection for users. The network is always subject to upgrades, resizing, and updates. backbone switches are generally expensive. If the scalability is poor, a waste of money may be incurred. When designing a vswitch, you must consider the development of your network, such as modular design and reserved slots. In addition, considering the constant expansion of network capacity, the switch backplane should also be sufficiently scalable. In addition, the backbone switch should support multiple interfaces for multiple applications. In particular, the backbone switch should support some high-speed and ultra-high-speed interfaces, such as OC-48 and OC-192 POS ports, or even 10G Ethernet interfaces, this is commensurate with its position in the network. Extensibility can also include the extension of hierarchies, for example, 4 ~ Layer-7 switching.
QoS is service guarantee
Vswitches are used to implement services. Many services, such as voice and video transmission, must have QoS Assurance before they can be provided to users. Therefore, QoS becomes an important indicator of vswitches. If the backbone switch encounters QoS problems, it will be the bottleneck of the whole network.
The basic measures to ensure QoS include speed limit, Policy Routing, and priority allocation. Take annett SwitchBlade 4000 Series backbone switch as an example. It can speed limit in multiple ways, including port-based, IP-based, Data Stream-based, and other methods. The bandwidth granularity is 64 Kbps. The network administrator can formulate a QoS policy and deploy it on the backbone switch. Each packet/frame that passes is processed according to this policy to obtain the corresponding priority.
Security is a challenge
Many people in the industry believe that powerful security functions should be deployed on backbone switches to meet the increasing security requirements of users. However, some people think that users with high security requirements should use specialized security devices, including software and hardware ). The primary function of a backbone switch is to provide high-traffic forwarding performance, while security and performance are in conflict. Although some devices and chips can be used for acceleration, this conflict can be mitigated, however, too many security functions are ultimately a burden.