SDN changes the router technology development path, and sdn changes the router path

SDN changes the router technology development path, and sdn changes the router path

Over the past 30 years, IP networks centered on routers and switches have always followed Moore's Law to build a modern information civilization with other IT devices. As the core device at the WAN and LAN egress, routers have always played a key role and have undergone continuous development and numerous upgrades.

Today, the router interfaces have changed from a wide variety of narrow-band interfaces, such as X.25, E1, ATM, POS, and SDH to broadband pure Ethernet interfaces, with a small number of high-speed and high-performance wavelength division interfaces, the operating protocols are gradually unified into a Distributed IP/MPLS system. The larger bandwidth, lower latency, smaller volume, and better cost make the routers, their "brother" switches, and PTN the foundation of almost all networks.

However, changes and movements are eternal, and development is the final principle. Currently, driven by hundreds of megabytes of broadband access, 4 K online videos, 4G/4.5G/5G, Internet of everything, customer experience first, SDN/NFV trends, routers are also facing continuous evolution and transformation.

First, the wide-area IPWAN network established by the router is a network with a wide range of applications. Generally, creating a new network is costly. Therefore, a large part of the demand is to expand the network capacity, A certain degree of compatibility is required technically. Therefore, the basic trajectory of router development and the focus of competition are still the evolution of a reasonable speed. On the basis of inheriting historical functions, we must continuously improve the capacity and capability. Taking the core router as an example, the mainstream commercially available devices are 16 to 20 slots per system, with 400 GB per board, forming a to 8 TB rack system. The subsequent development and competition points are to launch 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB boards at the right time. It is best to be compatible with each other. The capacity is increased, and the power consumption and price are not increased, continue to meet Moore's law requirements.

Second, a smaller volume. Traditional Mid-and high-end routers are all bulky "Iron bumps ". With the increase in property costs year by year, vrouters with smaller space sizes and large bandwidth are welcome. For the site routers of some base stations, the customer even hopes to directly hold the pole. Under this trend, it is very important to study the miniaturization or outdoor router. If you do well, the product will be very popular and will also form many differentiated competitive advantages.

The last point is to focus on the customer experience. In terms of hardware composition, Xiaomi routers use common components. However, in terms of software, it creates an App-based application chain, which is not only easy to use, but also creates new values, in addition, it can drive more sales of Xiaomi smart home.

With the development of SDN/NFV, vro-centric solutions are gradually being transformed. The fundamental point of change is the introduction of SDN (Software Defined network. The IP network can be widely deployed around the world. It relies on a distributed protocol system. The routers on one or more nodes crash and the IP network can continue to run. However, it is this distributed system that makes it difficult to implement many special global policies that are easy to implement. The "IQ" of IP networks is actually very low. What's more troublesome is that there is a fault between the application layer software and the router software, and it is difficult to fully implement application policies. The introduction of SDN is trying to solve these problems.

Of course, in the WAN Field Composed of routers, the SDN introduction policy is also relatively conservative. The conservative performance is to try not to touch the forwarding plane of the router, and maintain compatibility in the control plane as much as possible, in a hybrid system operation mode, the distributed control plane on the vro is gradually transferred to the centralized control plane, and the demand for comprehensive software automation is realized through hierarchical controllers and reasonable northbound interfaces. The Controller and the device use the original interface, such as NETCONF or even CLI, or the expansion of the original protocol such as BGP-LS and PCEP, the original concept of PW on the router, L3VPN, mpls te tunnel, etc. are still retained, however, the operating mode has changed. The previous "low intelligence" situation has been greatly improved by introducing SDN.