[j-nsp] EX Routing Throughput

[Pavel Lunin]

Hi Paul,

L3 switching is done in hardware (EX-PFE) so it is said to be wire-rate as
well as L2. Firewall filters are also hardware based so they don't degrade
performance in some reasonable amount (several thousand filter terms, I
guess).

However you should consider the FIB constrains for EX3200/4200. You can't
have more than 12k IPv4 active routes (and about half of that for IPv6) on
these platforms.

As the other have already said, the main difference between 3200 and 4200 is
virtual chassis. But I'd like to note that it is not just a fun gadget which
allows to have a solid fully redundant control plane for up to 10 switches.
You should also keep in mind that 4200 have one more PFE onboard and 2x
64Gbit full duplex (!) VC ports. So they have almost doubled performance in
compare with 3200.

For example, if you have 2 x 3200-24T priced $3k each, and you want to
connect them with a single 10Gig link, I have to buy 2 uplink modules
(2x$2k) and 2 XFP/SFP+, ($1.5k the cheapest). Well, it is at least $6.5k per
system.

If you use 2 x 4200-24T instead, priced $6k each, you have 2 wire-rate
switches connected with a 128 Gbps backplane. .5 meters VC-cables are
shipped with the boxes. But you are limited with the length of VC cables up
to 5 meters. You can built a VC cluster with ethernet ports, but in this
case you won't get that plenty of additional perrformance.

EX4200 also support redundant power supply.

So in terms of plain pps performance EX is a good choice. But be aware of
feature limitations.

Take a lot at this links:

http://www.juniper.net/techpubs/en_US/junos9.6/topics/reference/general/ex-series-l3-protocols-supported.html

http://www.juniper.net/techpubs/en_US/junos9.6/topics/reference/general/ex-series-l3-protocols-not-supported.html

http://www.juniper.net/techpubs/en_US/junos9.6/topics/concept/ex-series-software-features-overview.html

EX3200/4200 still have some minor issues with loopback filters. IFAIR, they
still can't log the traffic directed to the control plane.

--
Regards,
Pavel

2009/9/29 Paul Stewart <paul at paulstewart.org>

> Hi there..
>
>
>
> Does anyone have any real-world feedback on the layer3 performance of
> EX3200
> and/or EX4200 switches?  I've searched around and cannot find out the
> capabilities (pps/Gbps) but new to the Juniper world ;)
>
>
>
> Our needs are reasonable simple I think - considering putting in 10 EX4200
> in a virtual chassis configuration using the Virtual Chassis Cabling.  This
> allows us ample copper ports on the front and we can use the 4X1GE or
> 2X10GE
> ports for our fiber needs.  Total layer3 throughput would probably be about
> 1Gb/s average and peak at 2Gb/s.  OSPF, some small ACL, and IPv6 would be
> used.
>
>
>
> Thanks for any feedback,
>
>
>
> Paul
>
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