[j-nsp] TCAM full on EX8200?

[Richard A Steenbergen]

On Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 12:56:41PM +1100, Julien Goodwin wrote:
> 
> What's needed is for an OEM to build a generic router chassis that has 
> separate control plane, power, and forwarding modules that can be 
> swapped as needed. Potentially ATCA might be a good platform for this

This is already being worked on through something called OpenFlow, which 
aims to provide an open API to programming the hardware so that anyone 
can come along and write their own software for it. The chip makers are 
already able to produce massively high performance hardware for cheap, 
but none of them can figure out how to write the software for it to save 
their lives. This is why vendors are so scared of OpenFlow, if someone 
else can come along and write a good OS/BGP/etc for someone else's 
hardware they're in for a world of hurt.

At this point vendors like Cisco and Juniper aren't actually hardware 
companies, they're software companies. In many ways their hardware is 
inferior to the absurdly cheap and high performance chips being produced 
by folks like Broadcom (with the caveat that many times those chips have 
design flaws caused by lack of practical experience, see: nearly 
everyting wrong with the EX, for example :P), but the software is what 
keeps people buying the hardware.

Of course the traditional router vendors are also realizing that they 
won't be able to compete on price given the massive volumes that third 
party ASIC makers are doing, so they've already started building systems 
around those chips. The Cisco ASR is EZChip, the Juniper EX is Marvell, 
the Juniper QFX and a dozen other similar products are Broadcom, etc. 
But ultimately, it still comes down to software. The exact same Broadcom 
reference design box can be sold by Dell for $1k or by Force10 for $15k, 
and the difference is the software. :)

> There are other potential solutions, for example:
> http://www.nanog.org/meetings/nanog50/presentations/Monday/NANOG50.Talk17.swhyte_Opensource_LSR_Presentation.pdf

Yup, this is an example of software using OpenFlow.

> I do object to the "still vaporware", "not due to ship until the end of
> the year" is closer. The main threat to the T-series is that 10ge
> slowly removing the need for Sonet/SDH, and if all you need is 10g
> LAN-PHY the MX with the 16-port MIC does it nicely.

It's been talked about for a while, but I'll believe it when I actually 
see it. :) PTX is also priced very similarly to MX hardware, so while it 
may indeed be "cheaper than T", that doesn't really mean much (except 
for which Juniper business unit gets the revenue :P). It's not anything 
revolutionary, that one is still waiting to happen.

-- 
Richard A Steenbergen <ras at e-gerbil.net>       http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras
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