Solutions and Technology

Extending 10/40G Ethernet DCB Fabrics Between Data Centers

Overview

Ethernet has become a ubiquitous technology throughout the world for providing network connectivity. It is available in nearly every computer and is widely accepted as the preferred physical layer of choice for networking systems for both enterprise and wide area networks. Over the past 30 years, Ethernet has demonstrated its capability as an efficient, cost effective, and easy to deploy layer two networking technology. Now with data center capabilities being forced to expand to handle the rapid growth in transaction processing volumes and “big data” cloud computing applications high-speed 10G and 40G Ethernet networks are being deployed to provide vital high performance data center connectivity.

In order to support this application diversity as well as the goal of network consolidation, Ethernet has undergone a number of significant enhancements to its original specification that have enabled it to be deployed as a cost effective universal fabric technology for both compute and storage services. These enhancements have enabled Ethernet to provide congestion control and maintain quality of service for compute and storage applications that require reliable end-to-end data delivery.

However, enabling transparent, cost-effective 10/40G Ethernet network services, while still maintaining data protection critical for global compute and storage services, can be challenging for IT administrations to deploy between geographically distributed sites. Not only must these global network services be delivered seamlessly between sites but also it’s critical to provide wide area network service adaptation and tunneling capabilities to allow private Ethernet fabrics to be virtually extended between data centers without disruption or data loss.

The Solution

The Intelligent Bandwidth Exchange (IBEx™) Ethernet product family utilizes Bay Microsystems’ proprietary packet and transport processing technology to provide seamless Ethernet Data Center Bridging (DCB) fabric extension functionality through wide area network adaptation and tunneling capabilities over a variety of protocols. The IBEx supports and interoperates with virtually any network topology and data rate, thereby enabling unencumbered, line-rate Ethernet extension over a diverse array of high-performance wide area network protocols and deployment scenarios.

The IBEx Ethernet product family provides flexible connectivity options for both 10G and 40G Ethernet networks all within a low power (<150 watts), compact 1U form-factor platform. This allows the IBEx product family to provide 1/10/40G Ethernet extension, aggregation, and adaptation over a variety of 40G wide area network infrastructures including SONET OC-768 / SDH STM-26, ITU-T G.709/G975.1-I.4 OTU3, or dark fiber enabling IT managers to maintain protocol continuity beyond a single site to virtually anywhere around the globe without the need to modify existing applications.

The IBEx can even be used to provide network consolidation for up to four 10G networks services into a single 40G wide area network service thereby reducing infrastructure-operating costs. All this can be done utilizing IBEx’s ultra-low latency architecture with an unprecedented 1.9μs port-to-port latency for most applications.