Fully explain the features and products of operation-level Routers

There are still many things worth learning about in operation-level routers. Here we mainly introduce the features and products of operation-level routers. IP networks are hierarchical and can be roughly divided into core backbone) layer and edge layer, and corresponding operation-level routers can also be divided into core backbone) routers and edge routers, which have different statuses and have different roles, but there are some common characteristics in meeting telecom operation requirements:

◆ Wire speed forwarding. Forwarding performance is the most important indicator of operation-level routers. The business volume of the telecom network is huge. Routers generally connect to other devices through optical fiber. With the development of optical fiber technology, the transmission bandwidth is very wide. If the router cannot develop synchronously, it will become the bottleneck of the entire network bandwidth. Therefore, operation-level routers must achieve line rate forwarding to ensure the sustainable development of telecom network services.

◆ Comprehensive management and control measures. Different from the traditional Internet, a telecom network must be a network that can be strictly managed and controlled so that the network can fully realize the intentions of operators. Operation-level routers must support at least the SNMP Network Management Protocol, and can accept and provide various standard management information libraries (MIB) through SNMP ). At the same time, it is best to support general policy configuration (COPS) to facilitate unified configuration of QoS and security policies across the network. The Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) and MPLS restricted label assignment protocol (CR-LDP) should also be supported for network-oriented connection.

◆ High reliability. The telecom network is designed for carriers to charge user fees. stability and reliability are basic requirements. To achieve this, the manufacturer must first perform a large number of rigorous tests on the products developed, or the product has a lot of network operation experience to be tested. At the same time, it also supports hot backup and hot swapping to ensure that the system is not interrupted or the fastest recovery in various situations.

◆ Operation-level Routing Capability. Devices must support various popular routing protocols, such as RIP, OSPF, ISIS, BGP, and multicast protocols. As a service provider, it has high requirements on its BGP functions. BGP Peer should be deployed on hundreds of millions of times, and the route table should be large enough to support at least 0.1 million entries, with a high speed of up to millions of entries, the BGP Route processing capability should reach 3000 entries per second. In this way, the requirements of telecom operation can be met.

◆ Excellent QoS support, providing differentiated services. IP Telecom Network is a three-in-one platform that supports both voice and video services while carrying data services, all of which have high requirements on latency, jitter, and other indicators. This requires the network to provide Differentiated Services. services with high service quality requirements should be provided first, and corresponding fees will be charged. This satisfies the business requirements and increases network value. This requires that the operation-level router can provide high-performance line rate stream classification to differentiate the business flow. At the same time, there must be enough queue and other resources to process different streams accordingly.

◆ Good security assurance. The device must have security protection functions. It should protect the server or itself from hacker attacks, such as Dos blocking services) attacks, Ping of Death Ping attacks, and filter some addresses.

Features and products of Edge Routers

Edge Routers are used to access users and provide services to users at the edge of a carrier's network. The traditional Internet is completely open, and users connected to the network are treated equally. there is basically no management or service differentiation, and of course there is no business diversity. At present, the bandwidth of the IP network continues to expand. However, if only the Internet access service is provided to complete the data transmission function, it is difficult to create high value. In order to bring considerable profits to the built advanced network, you must provide a variety of services to increase the value of the network.

Providing multi-level and personalized services is an important feature of the Next Generation Network and is also the benefit of operators. Edge Routers are the direct connection points between operators and users and are the key to providing services. The core role of an edge router is to manage users and effectively differentiate incoming network traffic. On this basis, the traffic is processed based on static or dynamic configuration policies, in this way, users can feel the services they want. Faced with these requirements, the operation-level edge routers are constantly evolving towards intelligence. In addition to the common features such as line rate forwarding, high reliability, scalability, and powerful route processing capabilities that all operation-level routers should possess, there are also some of their own personalities:

1. Powerful user management and aggregation functions

Edge Routers collect user traffic and need to support various broadband access methods, including fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, xDSL, Cable, fixed and mobile wireless access. At the same time, it needs to have the highest possible port density to meet the needs of a large number of users at the same time. It can also work with the corresponding servers to complete user authentication, authentication, and billing AAA) and other functions to ensure network security and charge the corresponding fees for providing services.

2. diverse business capabilities

Like the layered network model, services are provided at multiple levels. As an IP layer device, an operation-level router is responsible for generating and providing IP layer services. The services it provides are also the basis of various application layer services. IP layer services include multicast, bandwidth management, stream classification, firewall, QoS, dynamic policy management, virtual routing, MPLS, and so on.

These functions should be completed in one device to reduce costs. To implement these functions, the operation-level router needs to implement multicast routing protocol, MPLS protocol, and so on, and must have a powerful ASIC chip as the basis for implementing these functions. Based on these functions, the network can provide VOD, voice, bandwidth wholesale, VPN, and other high-value-added services at the application layer.

Among them, QoS is the difficulty of implementation. the QoS of the edge router requires strong and high-speed stream classification support, and the CAR function must be provided to limit user input traffic, by using the COPS protocol for dynamic policy configuration, the router can ensure service quality according to different policies based on different service requirements at different times.

Based on the above considerations, equipment vendors should focus on providing a wide range of functions for the development of edge routers. In the operation-level router field, Cisco is the mainstream. It has a wide variety of products and is targeted at each other. It has launched a variety of edge operation-level routers for IDC, VPN applications, and broadband integrated access. Unisphere, Redback and other companies in the United States are relatively specialized. They focus on edge routers and are committed to enhancing product reliability and intelligence. They have launched their own products for telecom operators.