Comparison of Network Switch Architectures by CISCO A Master’s Project Presented to Department of Telecommunications In partial fulfillment Of the requirements for the Masters of Science Degree State University of New York Polytechnic Institute By Veera Venkata Satyanarayana Vemula i Executive Summary This project is targeted to compare two major switching architectures provided by CISCO. CISCO is a network device manufacturer who has contributed to networking world by inventing many networking protocols which are used to improve the network performance and network health. In this document the switching architectures CATALYST and NEXUS are compared. All the available features in each architectures are listed and working of the supported protocols is explained in detail. The document also considers three network scenarios and explains which architecture is best suited and explains why in detail. iv Table of Contents Thesis Statement..............................................................................................................viii Audience Definition........................................................................................................viii Introduction........................................................................................................................ 1 Computer networks and their history.........................................................................1 TCP/IP: ......................................................................................................................... 1 Switch architecture: ..................................................................................................3 Literature Review............................................................................................................... 5 CISCO.com .................................................................................................................... 5 CISCOLive.com ............................................................................................................. 5 Patents ............................................................................................................................ 5 Books ............................................................................................................................... 5 Lammle, T. (2012). Cisco Certified Network Associate Study guide Seventh Edition. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing, Inc.,........................................................... 5 Comparison of Architectures .......................................................................................... 6 CATALYST ARCHITECTURE ............................................................................................. 6 Supervisor architecture:............................................................................................ 6 Cisco Express Forwarding VS Flow Based Switching: ...........................................8 Backplanes in 6500 chassis:...................................................................................... 9 Switch Fabric: ...........................................................................................................10 Classic Line Card: ....................................................................................................10 Nexus Switching Architecture....................................................................................14 Chassis: ......................................................................................................................14 Modules:....................................................................................................................14 Supervisor:.................................................................................................................15 I/O modules:.............................................................................................................15 Fabric Module:.........................................................................................................21 v Comparison of Technologies ........................................................................................22 VSS vs VPC ....................................................................................................................22 Ether Channel: .........................................................................................................22 Virtual Switching System: ........................................................................................23 Virtual Port Channel: ...............................................................................................24 STP vs Fabric Path ........................................................................................................25 Spanning Tree Protocol: .........................................................................................25 Fabric path: ..............................................................................................................26 Virtual Routing Forwarding Vs Virtual Device Context ..........................................30 VRF: ............................................................................................................................30 VDC: ..........................................................................................................................31 Additional features by Nexus ....................................................................................32 Overlay Transport Virtualization:............................................................................32 Fabric Extender: .......................................................................................................34 Additional features in catalyst ..................................................................................35 Service modules:......................................................................................................35 Network Designs..............................................................................................................36 Network Scenario A ....................................................................................................36 Network Scenario B.....................................................................................................38 Network Scenario C ....................................................................................................40 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................42 Recommendations for Future Work .............................................................................42 Appendix..........................................................................................................................43 Bibliography .....................................................................................................................45 vi List of Figures FIGURE 1: OSI MODEL.............................................................................................................................................2 FIGURE 2: THREE LAYER ARCHITECTURE FOR A COMPUTER LAN NETWORK ................................................2 FIGURE 3: LAYER 2 SWITCH OPERATION ............................................................................................................3 FIGURE 4: PACKET WALK IN LAYER 2 SWITCH....................................................................................................4 FIGURE 5: CISCO 6500 FAMILY SWITCHES .........................................................................................................6 FIGURE 6: MSFC5 IN SUP2E IN 6500 CATALYST ..................................................................................................6 FIGURE 7: PFC4 IN SUP2E IN 6500 CATALYST .....................................................................................................6 FIGURE 8: SUPERVISOR2T BLOCK DIAGRAM.....................................................................................................7 FIGURE 9: FLOW BASED SWITCHING VS CEF .....................................................................................................8 FIGURE 10: BLACK PLANES IN 6513-E CHASSIS .................................................................................................9 FIGURE 11: BLOCK DIAGRAM OF CLASSIC 32 GB BUS BACKPLANE .............................................................9 FIGURE 12: SWITCH FABRIC IN 6509-E CATALYST SWITCH .............................................................................10 FIGURE 13: CEF 256 LINE CARD BLOCK DIAGRAM ........................................................................................11 FIGURE 14: CEF 720 LINE CARD ARCHITECTURE.............................................................................................12 FIGURE 15: DCEF 256 LINE CARD ARCHITECTURE ..........................................................................................12 FIGURE 16: DCEF 720 LINE CARD ARCHITECTURE ..........................................................................................13 FIGURE 17: DCEF2T LINE CARD ARCHITECTURE..............................................................................................13 FIGURE 18: BLOCK DIAGRAM OF M2 I/O MODULE .......................................................................................16 FIGURE 19: FORWARDING ENGINE IN M2 I/O MODULE................................................................................17