plexxi pod switch interconnect

04/10/2023© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential |

Plexxi PSI (Pod Switch Interconnect)Form-factor optimized, Photonic Data Center Fabric

October 2013


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THE PLEXXI SWITCH FABRIC

SDN-based Switching Infrastructure

• Scalable L1/L2/L3 Ethernet/IP architecture

• Flat, scale-out optical architecture

• Controller-based with rich APIs

• Integration-driven, Application-oriented

Plexxi Pod Switch Interconnect (PSI)

• Familiar Hub & Spoke physical form-factor

• High-performance at extremely low-cost

• Turn-key connectivity modules‒ Optimized for fixed-form-factor “pod”

deployments‒ Buy modular blocks of network capacity as

you grow your datacenter

Hub & Spoke Low Cost Pod Deployment


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SOLUTION

CONTROL SWITCH CONNECTAFFINITY

THE


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PLEXXI ARCHITECTURE

WORKFLOW CONNECTORS WORKLOAD CONNECTORS

Network Analytics

Application Analytics

Storage Clusters

Service AssuranceData Services Engine

Affinity Model

Network Topography

Algorithmic Fitting EnginePLEXXI

CONTROLPLEXXI

INTERFACE

Plexxi WebGUI

Plexxi Shell

Affinity

API

PLEXXI SWITCH FABRIC

Analytics Topology

Plexxi PSI:Pod Switch Interconnect


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PSIOptical Fabric

PSIOptical Fabric

PLEXXI POD SWITCH INTERCONNECT

Modularized Connectivity

Connectivity by the container

Block of Servers

Storage

Racks

Network (PSI)

Fixed form factor for data center pod deployments

6 Rack Row

432x 10G ports

12 RackRow

864x 10G ports

3x12 Rack Row

2448x 10G ports

PLEXXI POD SWITCH

INTERCONNECT FABRIC

Edge Switches Edge SwitchesOptical Spine Layer

HUB & SPOKE TOPOLOGY


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PLEXXI OPTICAL SPINE

• 100% Passive Optical chassis‒ 12x LightRail™ Pod switch ports‒ 6x LightRail™ PSI extender ports

• New optical topology‒ Hub & Spoke cabling topology‒ Passive bypass within PSI chassis‒ Inter-switch paths not disrupted by

leaf node maintenance‒ Online insertion/removal of leaf nodes‒ Maintains photonic switching

capabilities of traditional Plexxi fabric solution

Plexxi Pod Switch Interconnect (PSI)

East

West

Extender PortsPod Switch Ports

Sw1 Sw2 Sw3 Sw4 Sw5 Sw6 Ext1 Ext2 Ext3

Internal Photonic Topology• All passive bypass links now internal to PSI• No non-local traffic carried through leaf switches• 4.3Tb/sec optical capacity

PSI


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EXTENDING THE OPTICAL SPINEExtensible Spine Layer interconnects Pod

Supports extended spine-layer topologyOne or more PSI chassis deployed in ring topology

PSI


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PLEXXI SWITCH 2SPDense 10G Pod Edge Switch

Dense 10G Access at 3:1 oversubscription

72x10GE Access Ports ‒ 16x QSFP (16x40GbE or 64x 10/1GbE)‒ 8x SFP+ 10/1GbE

FlexxPorts*: 4x SFP+

2x LightRail Interfaces, each carrying 12x10GbE‒ 1km FP 1310 Optics‒ 240Gb/sec Full-Duplex uplink capacity

Co-controller CPU: Quad-core i5/16 GB DRAM

Plexxi LightRail™• Extended Capacity LightRail• Hub & Spoke Cabling

2x LightRail™

* FlexxPorts: allow direct-connect to the LightRail Fabric for fabric extension or non-Ethernet transport

PSI

2 RU ChassisMax/Typical Power Draw: 400W/250W


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CONNECTING THE LEAF AND SPINEPlexxi Pod Switch Interconnect

2x LightRail™ cables from each leaf node to PSI chassis

6x LightRail™ (3x East + 3x West)Extender Ports

Extender ports between PSI chassis interconnect remote pod deployments

(max 1km)

Plexxi Switch 2sp

One Plexxi Pod = 1x PSI + 6x Leaf Switches

Plexxi PSI

PSI


DEPLOYABLE NETWORK UNITSPre-configured Plexxi Pods available as a single SKU

1x Pod

2x Pods

6x Pods

(1-2 12-rack row) – 864 10GbE Access Ports

12x Switch 2sp, 2 PSI, all interconnecting cabling (20m)

Switch Software Licenses, Control Software

(3-6 12-rack connected rows) – 2448 10GbE Access Ports

30x Switch 2sp, 6x Switch 2s, 7x PSI, and all cabling (20m)

Switch Software Licenses, Control Software

(6-12 rack row) – 432 10GbE Access Ports

6x Switch 2sp, 1 PSI, all interconnect cabling (20m)

Switch Software License, Control Software

PSI


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DEPLOYMENT

PLEXXI Pod Switch Interconnect


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Plexxi Pod

DEPLOY ONE POD (SMALL)

6x Switch 2sp Leaf Switches

1x PSI ChassisSingle Pod Solution

PLEXXI CONTROL

Plexxi Switch 2sp

Plexxi PSI

PSI


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EXTENDED POD INTERCONNECT

LightRail™ Pod Extension

Plexxi Pod

PLEXXI CONTROL

Plexxi Pod

6x Switch 2sp Leaf Switches per PSI chassis

1x PSI Chassis (one per pod)2, 4 or 6 Pod Deployment via PSI Interconnect

PSI


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OPERATIONAL CONSIDERATIONSDeploying and Maintaining a Plexxi Pod Architecture

Plexxi Pod

• Single instance of fabric control plane• Switch maintenance affects only local traffic• Passive Optical PSI

• Plexxi Pod represents a single maintenance domain

• All switches maintain fully-meshed optical topology across LightRail™ and PSI interconnect

• Zero configuration required for underlying fabric control

• Passive PSI requires no configuration

• Self-maintaining optical fabric‒ Automated topology discovery and sub-second liveness

detection on all fabric paths‒ Real-time optical monitoring of all photonic paths by leaf

switches

• Single instance of Plexxi Control‒ One point of administration / API access

PSI

Switch 2sp

Switch 2sp

Switch 2sp

Switch 2sp

Switch 2sp

Switch 2sp

PSI


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REDUNDANCYMultiple Levels of Redundancy within the Plexxi Solution

Fabric Redundancy Dual Fabrics Controller Redundancy

Control

• Highly-meshed, redundant interconnect based on photonic fabric

• Integrated optical quality monitoring

• Fast Local Repair within fabric

• Support for Dual Pod Topologies with independent fabric control planes

• Multiple Pods via single instance of Plexxi Control

“A” Network

“B” Network

• Fabric continues to operate when disconnected from controller

• Support for redundant controller and graceful switchover

1 2 3

PLEXXI CONTROL


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FAULT TOLERANCEDesigned for Survivability and Continuous Operation

Hierarchical Control Plane Resilient Data Plane Fast Local Repair

• Controller-based global optimization and interface

• Distributed Co-controllers on each switch operate when disconnected from controller

‒ Distributed routing and switching control

• Zero-config fabric control plane operates independently from controller

• Switch insert/removal from PSI doesn’t affect transit traffic through leaf switches

• Photonic fabric delivers highly-meshed interconnect paths for efficient load-balancing and fast repair

• Optical monitoring on all fabric paths

• Intelligent fast-reroute by co-controller allows sub-second convergence

• Controller-based optimization includes shared-risk group in failover

• All fabric paths tested at sub-second intervals

• Fast local repair works even if controller is disconnected


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Plexxi Switch 2p (New!) Multiple LightRail™ Interconnects• Massive increase in cross-sectional

bandwidth• Adds capacity for L1 path engineering • Increase benefit from controller-based

path optimization‒ Wider path optimization‒ More low-latency bypass capacity

YOUR DATA CENTER AT PLEXXI SCALEEnhanced Pod Interconnect: a new dimension of photonic scale

Switch2p

Switch2p

Switch2p

Switch2p

Switch2p

Switch2p

Switch2p

Switch2p

• 4x LightRail™ interfaces• Concentric LightRail™ topologies

PLEXXI CONTROL

• Multiple Pods• Multiple LightRail™• Single Controller

Multi-Degree Pod Interconnect

Concentric LightRail™ Topologies

PSI


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PLEXXI SWITCH 2PPod Edge/Interconnect SwitchInterconnect-optimized, 1:1 oversubscription

48x10GbE Access Ports‒ 12x QSFP (12x 40GbE or 48x 10/1GbE)

FlexxPorts*: 4x QSFP and 12x SFP+

4x LightRail Interfaces, each carrying 12x10GbE‒ 1 km FP 1310 Optics, 24 fiber MTP cables

Co-controller CPU : Quad Core i5/16 GB DRAM

• Enables multi-degree Pod interconnect• Doubles photonic fabric capacity• Increase cross-sectional bandwidth and

add low-latency or dedicated capacity

Plexxi LightRail™• Extended Capacity LightRail• Hub & Spoke Cabling

4x LightRail™

* FlexxPorts: allow direct-connect to the LightRail Fabric for fabric extension or non-Ethernet transport

PSI

2 RU ChassisMax/Typical Power Draw: 500W/400W


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PLEXXI PSI SCALING

SWITCH FABRIC• L2/L3 Fabric Capacity: 2.56 Tb/sec

• Max Usable Capacity: 1.92Tb/sec

• Packet Lookup rate: Wire-speed

SWITCH 2p /SWITCH 2sp

SWITCH FABRIC & OPTICAL

CAPACITY

L2/L3 SUPPORT

LAYER 2 SCALING• MAC Addresses: 288K

L2 PROTOCOL SUPPORT• IGMPv2 Snooping

• LACP

LAYER 3 SCALING• IPv4 Prefixes: 16K

L3 PROTOCOL SUPPORT• IPv4 Static Routes

• OSPFv2, BGP, PIMv2

OPTICAL FABRIC• > 3.2Tb/sec Optical Cross-Connect

• Switch 2p:

• 4x LightRail™ (480Gb/sec capacity)

• Switch 2sp:

• 2x LightRail™ (240Gb/sec capacity)


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SUMMARY

PLEXXI Pod Switch Interconnect


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SUMMARYPlexxi Pod Architecture

Hub & Spoke Low Cost Pod Deployment

Plexxi Switch 2sp Plexxi PSI

New Hardware:Pod Deployment

New Hardware:Photonic Scale

Plexxi Switch 2p Additional LightRail™ Capacity

No Compromise:All the Plexxiness

CONTROL SWITCH CONNECTAFFINITY


THANK YOU

plexxi pod switch interconnect

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