BIOS IT Blog
Introducing the world’s FASTEST layer 2+ switch
BIOS IT are always striving to bring state of the art products and technologies to market. The ExaLINK Fusion is a uniquely flexible top-of-rack switch that can do it all. With a combination of 110ns Layer 2 switching, 100ns Layer 1.5 forwarding and 5ns Layer 1 functionality, it is an unbeatable choice for any application requiring low latency networking. A pluggable line card architecture allows configurations of up to 48 ports of 10G or up to 12 ports of 40G. Within the chassis, two module bays allow application specific or custom modules to be fitted. The Layer 2 switch module is fitted to one of these bays, leaving the other free for FPGA applications using the FPGA development kit allowing deployment of customer applications right inside the switch.
110ns LAYER 2 SWITCHING
Any of the front panel ports can be connected together into a virtual Ethernet switch, with a latency as low as 110ns - making it the fastest Ethernet switch available today. Ingress and egress times are tracked to provide visibility into latency, and the device can insert timestamps into packets. Limited Layer 3 functionality is also available to meet connectivity requirements imposed by financial exchanges.
100ns LAYER 1.5 FORWARDING & AGGREGATION
In situations where data can be forwarded without inspecting the destination address, the latency further reduces to approximately 100ns. For instance, this is the case when multiple servers are connected to a single upstream port, or when aggregating tapped data streams to a single port.
5ns LAYER 1 PATCHING & TAPPING
The ExaLINK Fusion also incorporates the ultra-fast Layer 1 technology that the ExaLINK family is known for. Any of the front panel ports can be flexibly connected to the switch fabric and to each other with almost invisible latency. Since each port can be connected to multiple destinations, this functionality can be used to fan out data or to tap ports for monitoring without incurring the full switch latency.
APPLICATION PLATFORM
In addition to the Layer 2 switching module which comes standard, a user application module can be fitted in a second internal bay. The current version of this module features a latest generation Xilinx Ultrascale FPGA; future modules will include other FPGAs and network processors. The application module can be configured to connect to any of the front panel ports or L2 switch ports.
FLEXIBLE AND EXTENSIBLE DESIGN
Interchangeable line cards allow the system capacity to be flexibly configured to cater for the desired mix of 10G Ethernet, 40G Ethernet or other standards. Interchangeable switching and application modules allow the system to evolve to fit user demands, and even to support standards other than Ethernet in the future.
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