XPliant™ Packet Architecture (XPA™) Enables Data Plane Flexibility for SDN Without Compromising Raw Speed
Cavium, Inc., (NASDAQ: CAVM), a
leading provider of semiconductor products that enable intelligent processing
for enterprise, data center, cloud, service provider wired and wireless
networking, and XPliant, Inc., a fabless Ethernet switch silicon provider,
today introduced the CNX880xx line of Ethernet switch chips
featuring the revolutionary XPliant Packet Architecture (patent pending)
(“XPA”) – an industry first, delivering no-compromise, high packet throughput
on a fully programmable switch architecture. Cavium announced on July 30, 2014
a definitive agreement to acquire XPliant.
Global mobile data traffic will increase nearly 11-fold between 2013 and 2018 (61% CAGR), while cloud data center IP traffic will more than double between 2014 and 2017 (30% CAGR) according to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index and Global Cloud Index. Software Defined Networking (“SDN”), virtualization and faster link speeds continue to emerge as the architectural solutions to alleviate these issues.
Global mobile data traffic will increase nearly 11-fold between 2013 and 2018 (61% CAGR), while cloud data center IP traffic will more than double between 2014 and 2017 (30% CAGR) according to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index and Global Cloud Index. Software Defined Networking (“SDN”), virtualization and faster link speeds continue to emerge as the architectural solutions to alleviate these issues.
- Performance:
Dell’Oro is forecasting connections faster than 10G (25, 40, 50, 100G and
beyond) will increase at an annual rate of 60% to $8.2B by 2018.
- Flexibility:
Data center networks need to be more agile, to support SDN and NFV
initiatives. IDC predicts SDN will grow at over 89% annually,
reaching $8B by 2018.
- Flexibility
using the XPA will allow new protocols to be implemented in weeks, not
years.
Introducing the CNX880xx
Programmable Switch Silicon Family
The CNX880xx family was built from the ground up to utilize XPA, allowing the design team to create a groundbreaking flexible switch without compromising on performance. Existing switches evolved from simple layer 2 bridges, and over time have accumulated many disparate features, resulting in an inefficient architecture.
The XPliant team took a fresh, original approach in developing the XPA technology. Dedicated function blocks were replaced with an array of programmable packet engines and shared resources adaptable to perform the various operations required in the switch. The innovative XPA approach will enable the switch to be tailored to the requirements of new protocols with unprecedented flexibility. Software personalities will dictate the exact operation to be performed – for packet parsing, table look-ups, packet re-writes, fabric scheduling, and statistics and counters – without impacting performance.
The CNX880xx family of switch chips from Cavium and XPliant will provide:
The CNX880xx family was built from the ground up to utilize XPA, allowing the design team to create a groundbreaking flexible switch without compromising on performance. Existing switches evolved from simple layer 2 bridges, and over time have accumulated many disparate features, resulting in an inefficient architecture.
The XPliant team took a fresh, original approach in developing the XPA technology. Dedicated function blocks were replaced with an array of programmable packet engines and shared resources adaptable to perform the various operations required in the switch. The innovative XPA approach will enable the switch to be tailored to the requirements of new protocols with unprecedented flexibility. Software personalities will dictate the exact operation to be performed – for packet parsing, table look-ups, packet re-writes, fabric scheduling, and statistics and counters – without impacting performance.
The CNX880xx family of switch chips from Cavium and XPliant will provide:
- Industry
leading Ethernet bandwidth – 880 Gigabits per second to 3.2 Terabits per
second in a single chip
- Industry leading
port density at 3.2T with many flexible configurations, including:
- 32 ports of
100G
- 64 ports of
40G or 50G
- 128 ports
of 10G or 25G
- Various
combinations of these port speeds
- Support for
the new 25G Ethernet Consortium specification for 25G on a single lane or
50G on two lanes.
XPA will be available on XPliant’s
CNX880xx Ethernet Switch product
line, which is expected to sample in Q4, 2014. Evaluation boards will be
available at the same time.
XPliant provides source code for a complete set of switching and routing functions as well as several network overlays via its SDK (software design kit). The newest protocols such as GENEVE are already supported. As new protocols are introduced, updated personalities can be provided, even to switches that are installed in the network. Thus as innovations such as OpenFlow™ TTPs or VXLAN extensions are created, they can quickly be deployed across the network. The SDK and a software simulator are available now, enabling XPliant customers to have their software debugged and ready to go when the chips arrive.
“Leading cloud-scale Internet companies need to cope with the rapid increase in traffic from mobile apps as well as video” said Eric Hayes, VP and general manager, Switch Platform Group. “With XPA, OEMs will be able to differentiate their products while drastically reducing the time to new service deployment, increasing automation and driving operational efficiency.”
Cavium’s OCTEON® and ThunderX™ processors are excellent companions for providing the control plane CPU for switch products. Reference designs will also support other control plane CPU options.
"This new XPliant switch silicon featuring XPA is going to provide great benefits to the market" said JR Rivers, CEO and co-founder of Cumulus Networks. "The open and flexible nature of the architecture is very aligned with our vision and approach to networking.”
The ability to update the Ethernet switch feature set provides several important business benefits:
XPliant provides source code for a complete set of switching and routing functions as well as several network overlays via its SDK (software design kit). The newest protocols such as GENEVE are already supported. As new protocols are introduced, updated personalities can be provided, even to switches that are installed in the network. Thus as innovations such as OpenFlow™ TTPs or VXLAN extensions are created, they can quickly be deployed across the network. The SDK and a software simulator are available now, enabling XPliant customers to have their software debugged and ready to go when the chips arrive.
“Leading cloud-scale Internet companies need to cope with the rapid increase in traffic from mobile apps as well as video” said Eric Hayes, VP and general manager, Switch Platform Group. “With XPA, OEMs will be able to differentiate their products while drastically reducing the time to new service deployment, increasing automation and driving operational efficiency.”
Cavium’s OCTEON® and ThunderX™ processors are excellent companions for providing the control plane CPU for switch products. Reference designs will also support other control plane CPU options.
"This new XPliant switch silicon featuring XPA is going to provide great benefits to the market" said JR Rivers, CEO and co-founder of Cumulus Networks. "The open and flexible nature of the architecture is very aligned with our vision and approach to networking.”
The ability to update the Ethernet switch feature set provides several important business benefits:
- Provide new
protocol deployment in weeks, not years
- Fast
response to changing business requirements
- Extend
switch lifecycle, improving ROI. Change in protocol requirements will not
render the switch obsolete like commonly available options
- Switches can
be re-deployed by adapting features to match new locations
- Inventory
management – using software personalities to adapt a single spare type to
multiple network locations – reducing CapEx
- OEM switch
system vendors can create impactful, differentiated solutions by creating
protocols for specific business opportunities
The XPliant family of switching chips target applications in cloud / enterprise data centers and service
provider infrastructure, for both top-of-rack and backbone applications. They
will also provide connectivity solutions for embedded applications. The combination
of leading performance and unprecedented flexibility is attractive across all
these segments.
“XPA is not an incremental approach to switching but rather a completely new paradigm, with the potential to change the economics of network switching,” said Bob Wheeler, principal analyst for networking, The Linley Group. "Using XPA switches, customers can continue to evolve and add features without needing a hardware upgrade.”
“The architects pushing the limits of data center design are always looking for ways to innovate, but the fixed-feature switches of today limit what they can do” said Dan Pitt, executive director of the Open Networking Foundation. “Table Type Patterns and other tools ONF develops to enable protocol-independent forwarding open the door to a flexible physical infrastructure that responds to the dynamic needs of these data centers and we are delighted to see them being implemented and brought to market.”
XPliant CNX880xx – along with Cavium’s ThunderX, OCTEON, and LiquidIO® – will provide Cavium’s customers comprehensive end to end solutions for compute, networking and storage, optimized for best performance, cost and power for next generation virtualized software defined infrastructure.
“XPA is not an incremental approach to switching but rather a completely new paradigm, with the potential to change the economics of network switching,” said Bob Wheeler, principal analyst for networking, The Linley Group. "Using XPA switches, customers can continue to evolve and add features without needing a hardware upgrade.”
“The architects pushing the limits of data center design are always looking for ways to innovate, but the fixed-feature switches of today limit what they can do” said Dan Pitt, executive director of the Open Networking Foundation. “Table Type Patterns and other tools ONF develops to enable protocol-independent forwarding open the door to a flexible physical infrastructure that responds to the dynamic needs of these data centers and we are delighted to see them being implemented and brought to market.”
XPliant CNX880xx – along with Cavium’s ThunderX, OCTEON, and LiquidIO® – will provide Cavium’s customers comprehensive end to end solutions for compute, networking and storage, optimized for best performance, cost and power for next generation virtualized software defined infrastructure.
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