What happened?

• 1G price reduction
• leaf switch SKUs that combines 10G and 25G
• spine switchSKUs that combines 40G and 100G

Edge-Core AS5512-54X is the first commercially-available switch with Nephos Aries MT3257 ASIC.

Looks like a traditional 10G switch with 48x 10G and 6x 40G ports, having Intel Atom C2538 quad-core CPU, redundant hot-swappable PSU, and two airflow options.

Performance metrics:

Wire Speed Forwarding: L2 and L3

Switching Capacity: 1.44 Tbps

Forwarding Rate: 1 Bpps

MAC Addresses: 256 K

VLAN IDs: 4K

Jumbo frames (9216 Bytes)

L3 Routes: IPv4 maximum 96 K, IPv6 maximum 56 K

Packet Buffer Size: 12 MB shared buffer pool

Among all features and improvements, there is one for the CLI-hardened guys.

The Network Command Line Utility, or NCLU, is a command line interface for Cumulus Networks products that works just like your good old CLI interface.

We manage to add support for 4-byte autonomous system (AS) numbers (RFC4893) in our ICOS NOS for Aurora 620/720 switches.

Looking to try ICOS or OpenSwitch?

Don’t want to spend a lot of resources to get your PoC working?

Our internal lab with multiple Netberg Aurora switches is available for remote access!

There is a word that Aurora 620 and Aurora 720 supports Ubuntu with integrated OF-DPA 2.0

That means an availability of one more NOS option for Tomahawk HW and fully-features OpenFlow 1.3.4 support.

MPLS in all it's glory and several OpenFlow controllers tested.

Sounds interesting for those who want to play with telecom applications.

Netberg Aurora 620 with 48x 25G SFP28 and 6x 100G QSFP28 ports is available from now on.

You can choose from bare metal and ICOS-fueled options.

Full replacement of 10/40G technology at the same cost to enhance your network!

An alternative to ICOS is ready – OpenSwitch.

OpenSwitch - an open source, Linux-based network operating system (NOS) designed to power enterprise grade switches from multiple hardware vendors that will enable organizations to rapidly build data center networks that are customized for unique business needs.

Now you can grab a bare metal version of Aurora 720 or Aurora 620 and make it ready for use in your network.

More about ICOS here.

DC switch NOS evolution

For many years, switches were black boxes with management through CLI/web or special API from vendors.

Cumulus Linux was the first product that aimed to change the industry and manage a switch like a Linux server with standard Linux management, monitoring, and provisioning tools. However, Cumulus Linux is aimed at the particular market with heavy L3 usage and offers a limited set of network protocols.

What’s going on with traditional CLI-oriented network OS?

They are going to be open too. Let’s take a look at ICOS, a feature-rich package from Broadcom that serves as a foundation for NOS on their ASICs.

Unlike servers, Ethernet switch does not allow simple Linux deployment with an ASIC drivers. Special integration efforts are required for a proper LED indication management, port mapping, power control, etc. Such integration could be implemented in many ways, let’s take a look at them.

It’s a major release with 100G support as well as new 10G Base-T models. At last, Quanta LY9 is not the only one copper platform available.

Two Mellanox models are on the list too, 40 and 100G boxes.

Software and feature enhancements released in Cumulus Linux 3.0 include:

• Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF): Provides customers with multi-tenancy and traffic isolation capabilities for layer 3 Clos topologies.
• Base foundation update: Cumulus Linux 3.0 is rebased on the latest Debian 8 release (Jessie) and an upgraded Linux 4.1 kernel, enabling customers to access all the benefits of upstream updates from the Linux ecosystem.
• Cumulus VX enhancements: Platform emulation, ONIE inclusion and releasing alongside Cumulus Linux make Cumulus VX a true learning and pre-production tool. 
• 2.5 Extended Support Release (ESR): Customers now have the option to choose between Cumulus Linux 2.5 ESR, a mature and stable release, and the new Cumulus Linux 3.0, with the latest features, for their environments. Cumulus Linux 2.5 ESR will be supported and maintained for three years.

Cumulus Linux 3.0 is available on x86 and ARM CPU architectures. Cumulus Linux 2.5 ESR supports x86, ARM and PowerPC architectures. 

For more information, please review the Cumulus Linux release notes to learn about all the improvements and new features in 3.0.