Intel SDN Products

Intel devices and software for building computer networks traditionally remain in the shadow of more spectacular and well-known products, while in this area there are interesting news and fundamentally new solutions. In this post, we will briefly talk about one of these solutions - SDN networks. And not only we will tell, but also offer Intel SDN equipment for free!

First, briefly recall what it is. SDN (Software-Defined Networking) is a relatively new approach to building networks in which the control layer is programmed directly and it is detached from the data transmission layer. The result is an incredibly flexible, manageable, adaptive and economical network architecture that allows an administrator to monitor and automate routine operations at a whole new level.


Architecture of SDN

The basis of SDN is the OpenFlow protocol, which implements the interaction of the controller with network devices. Through the API, the controller interfaces with various business applications that require a specific configuration or network characteristics. Thus, the settings and functionality of network devices, previously hard-wired in their firmware, are now implemented openly and programmatically, which holds great promise.

In order to develop and promote SDN as such and OpenFlow, in particular, the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) was created, which currently includes all major network equipment manufacturers such as Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Dell, Ericsson, Extreme Networks, HP, Huawei , IBM, Juniper Networks, and, of course, Intel .

In 2013, Intel introduced a line of products designed to work in SDN networks - matrixes for Intel Ethernet Switches FM5000 / FM6000 . Their main characteristics are shown in the table below.

	Intel FM6764	Intel FM6724	Intel FM5224
Throughput	640 Gbps	240 Gbps	240 Gbps
Process technology	65 nm	65 nm	65 nm
SGMII Ports	72	72	72
Ports 10G KR	64	24	8
Ports 40G KR4	16	6	2
Frame Processing Speed	960 M / s	360 M / s	360 M / s
Packet cache size	8 Mb	8 Mb	8 Mb
MAC table size	64 K	64 K	64 K
Number of IPv4 / IPv6 Routes	64K / 16K	64K / 16K	64K / 16K

Thanks to the flexible architecture of the matrix, the main protocols for DPCs are supported - L3 switching, MPLS, NAT, PFC (priority flow control), ETS (enhanced transmission selection), TRILL, VXLAN, NVGRE and DCBx. At the same time, high performance and non-blocking switching along with extremely low latencies (400 ns) remain.

The software component of the development was handled by the WindRiver company, already known to us, Intel. An important part of the platform support was its development by WindRiver ONS (Open Network Software), which not only uses all the capabilities of the matrices, but also provides tools for developing applications, access to low-level capabilities of switches, and a Python-based testing environment.

Also in the previous year, platforms based on Intel FM5000 / 6000 + WindRiver ONS became available.


Switch ETegro the Eos 410i : 48-port 10G SFP + and four 40G Ethernet ports, Intel FM6764 matrix.

Well, in conclusion, the promised tempting offer. The company ETegro Technologies invites developers of network applications and the companies that are going to test / deploy SDN solutions for testing the switch in real problems. The authors of the most interesting project, including highly loaded solutions on traditional switching, will receive one switch. Summing up March 31. To all interested, please send a request by e-mail .