Intel ONS Based Software Defined Network

In this article we’d like to remind you about the Software Defined Network (SDN) concept and discuss its implementation in the Intel ONS platform.

What is SDN?

There is a lot of information available about SDN, so we will just briefly remind you the basic idea, which is to manage network equipment and data transfers separately.

Here are the benefits of this solution:

  • Direct network programming: The separation of the management planes lets you build your architecture directly.
  • Flexibility: the administrator can adjust the network’s operation rules “on the fly” to adapt to changing requirements.
  • Centralized management: All management options are combined (logically) in a single location, namely in the SDN controller. The network is identified by applications as a single logical switch.
  • Software-based configuring: The SDN concept allows to configure, manage, define security rules and optimize network resources quickly through automated means. You can even develop your own tools for that purpose.
SDN

Hardware from Intel

Last year Intel unveiled a number of FM6000 Ethernet switches based on solutions from Fulcrum Microsystems, a firm Intel had bought previously.

Intel FM6000 silicon design
FM6000 design idea

They are positioned as hybrid switches capable of going over easily from traditional switching to SDN. Their key feature is that they can use either an OpenFlow or a traditional packet processor. Being highly flexible, the Intel FM6000’s parser supports any standards, so the administrator can actually define his own protocols. The flexibility is due to the parser’s design:

The parser’s TCAM/RAM/MUX structure

A switch of this kind can work on traditional and OpenFlow networks simultaneously, delivering high performance with extremely low latencies.

Reference design

Models available in the series


Features and Specifications



Intel® Ethernet Switch FM5224



Intel® Ethernet Switch FM6300



Intel® Ethernet Switch FM6700



Maximum bandwidth



240G



640Gbps



640Gbps



Maximum SGMII ports



72



72



72



Maximum XAUI ports



2



24



24



Maximum 10G KR ports



8



64



64



Maximum 40G KR4 ports



2



16



16



Cut-through latency



400nS



400nS



400nS



Frame processing rate



360Mpps



960Mpps



960Mpps



Shared packet memory size



8MB



8MB



8MB



Traffic classes



8



8



8



MAC table size



64K



64K



64K



ACL rules



24K



24K



24K



IPv4/IPv6 routes



64K/16K



64K/16K



64K/16K



Intel® Flexpipe™ technology



Yes



Yes



Yes



Advanced load balancing



Yes



Yes



Yes



CEE/DCB features



Yes



Yes



Yes



Server virtualization support



Yes



Yes



Yes



Advanced tunneling features



No



Yes



Yes



SDN support



No



No



Yes



CPU interface



PCIe*, EBI



PCIe gen2



PCIe gen2



Target applications



Micro servers



Data center top of rack switch, network appliances, and video distribution.



Data center and communications infrastructure supporting software defined networking


Software from Intel

It is for such switches that Intel unveiled the Wind River Open Network Software solution.

Features:

  • Modular, open and expandable architecture with access to low-level functions
  • System interfaces with open APIs and RPCs.
  • XML-RPC based management interface
  • Object-oriented design with XML and database schemas
  • Application development kit for embedding new applications into the switch
  • Native support for a number of protocols and modular extensions

 

Key L2 and L3 features and datacenter bridging functionality are supported.

Layer 2

  • Port-based VLAN
  • 802.1Q VLAN
  • IGMP snooping
  • LACP
  • Storm Control
  • STP/RSTP/MSTP
  • Q-in-Q
  • QoS/DiffServ
  • L2/L3/L4 ACL
  • LLDP (802.1ab)

Layer 3

  • Static route
  • VLAN routing
  • OSPF v2
  • ECMP
  • ARP
  • IGMP*
  • PIM-SM*
  • VRRP*
  • OSPF v3*
  • PIM-SM6*
  • DHCPv6 relay
  • BGP

Management

  • CLI/WEB/SNMP
  • IPv6 management
  • Auto-Installation

Data Center Application

  • 802.1Qaz (ETS)
  • 802.1Qbb (PFC)
  • DCBX
  • VM Tracer
  • EVB/802.1Qbg
  • OpenFlow v1.0
  • VXLAN
  • NVGRE*

 

Features marked with the “*” character will be supported in the future versions.

 

Here is the perfect switch of the future as envisioned by Intel:

ONS

What is our part?

What do we have if we take the top-end Intel FM6764 model and the ONS network stack?

 

Just an excellent switch!

Intel FM6000 switch front view
Front view

It’s got 48 10G SFP+ and four 10G QSFP ports, one USB port, console and management ports.

Intel FM6000 switch rear view
Rear view

There are also two power supplies, and hot-swappable ventilation.

Intel FM6000 switch inside
Inside view

And there is an Intel Core i3 processor, 2 GB of system memory, and a 30GB SSD. 

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