An interesting approach to scalable switches. (Top Technology Showcase).

Dune Networks, a startup provider of switch-fabric and traffic manager devices, has unveiled its FE200 scalable switch. The newly released widget is a self-routing device that integrates 64 full-duplex 3.125Gbps serial links and gives Internet and storage platform vendors the ability to build future-proof systems that truly scale.

According to Gabriel Braca, verification manager at Dune, a major reason for the short lifecycle of end products is their inability to grow or expand. "Specifically, they embody hard limitations on the number of ports, on the port rates, and the services that they provide," said Braca. The solution that Dune has devised enables customers to construct switching systems that scale from just a few network ports, to an almost endless combination of ports. Customers can start out small and keep expanding with no practical limitations on the system capacity. Vendors can now build systems with life cycles of up to 15 years.

"This offering is in line with the plans we announced in October to deliver a scheduled switch fabric that enables 3D scalability," said Ofer Thy, CTO of Dune Networks. "The FE200 makes it possible to build both a 1 to 64 pipes, single-stage switching system and up to 2048 pipes folded three-stage switching fabric. It can accommodate any port rate, with any type, and any service scheme in the same system."

In order for a system to evolve over time, both Braca and Iny feel that it needs the ability to adapt to different port rates. Dune's fabric guarantees this interoperability and ensures that a system vendor can start small with 10Gbps port rates and scale up to 40Gbps to even higher future rates of 100Gbps and 160Gbps.

The multi-routing gizmo is also capable of adapting to various service schemes. For example, a system can start with Ethernet/IP/MPLS service line cards, providing weight and rate-based services with tens of thousands of queues per port, and later add ATM line cards, providing finer-grained scheduling, hier-archal scheduling and millions of queues per port, if required, all via the same switching device.

The FE200 also offers a convenient self-healing fabric where 1+1, N+1, and N-1 fault-tolerance schemes are supported. It supports a performance degradation scheme, guaranteeing interconnectivity regardless of functioning fabric capacity. No software intervention is required to detect and isolate faults. The fabric supports loss-less recovery from scheduled and unscheduled faults, meaning that an active fabric card can be pulled from the system with no unfortunate consequences.

Dune Networks is currently shipping the FE200 in sample quantities to its customers.

www.dunenetworks.com