[c-nsp] new Cisco routers 1800/2800/3800

[Łukasz Bromirski]

Neil J. McRae wrote:

> > Does anyone have further details (and is permitted to share 
> > them), like
> The ASIC is used to manage the I/O bus.

Yes, exactly. It is used to manage the I/O bus, not to forward
packets. It would be wonderful, but from what I know and my
limited access to these routers, the CPU still participates
in forwarding the traffic. I.e. it goes really high (not like
on the PXF-enabled platforms, when it stays at 1-2%) when
GigabitEthernet ports are flooded with traffic, even when no
ACLs/NAT/logging are used.

Do You have any technical information from cisco, claiming
the ASIC is actually doing the forwarding autonomously?

And also - You claimed that there's embedded firewall - I don't
see anything like that. Can You shed some light on that too?

Yes, I know there's integrated VPN chip (but the AIM-VPN is still
an option, actually enhancing performance, not disabling on-board
one!), DSPs on voice enabled routers, and TDM functionality
built-in ASIC, but what about that hardware forwarding and
firewall You're talking about?

>> - which IOS trains are available?  "Standard" 12.3T or 
>>"weird-letter"?
> I would imagine its weird letter.

As Brian Vowell already mentioned, and I saw actually and worked with,
those are "standard" 12.3T images.

What is really interesting, for example, is the option to do Giga
EtherChannel from both 10/100/1000 ports on 28xx platforms, and it
actually works (tested with 3550 and 3750 switches).

>> - IPv6 support?
>> - IPv6 support *on the forwarding ASIC*?
> I don't think IPV6 support on day one but the 2800 takes
> 1G of memory so it should be an issue.

IPv6 support is there, but again - IMHO in software, ASIC is not touching
the forwarding thing.

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