T640 Router System Architecture Overview; T640 System Architecture Description - Juniper T640 Hardware Manual

CHAPTER 2
T640 Router System Architecture
Overview

T640 System Architecture Description

Copyright © 2013, Juniper Networks, Inc.
T640 System Architecture Description on page 5
T640 Routing Engine Functions on page 6
T640 Packet Forwarding Engine Architecture on page 7
Data Flow Through the T640 Router on page 8
The router architecture cleanly separates control operations from packet forwarding
operations. This design eliminates processing and traffic bottlenecks, permitting the
router to achieve high performance. Control operations in the router are performed by
the host subsystem, which runs Junos OS to handle routing protocols, traffic engineering,
policy, policing, monitoring, and configuration management. Forwarding operations in
the router are performed by the Packet Forwarding Engines, which consist of hardware,
including ASICs, designed by Juniper Networks.
The T640 Core Router has two main architectural components:
Routing Engine—This component provides Layer 3 routing services and network
management.
Packet Forwarding Engines—These high-performance, ASIC-based components provide
Layer 2 and Layer 3 packet switching, route lookups, and packet forwarding.
The Routing Engine and the Packet Forwarding Engines perform their primary tasks
independently, although they constantly communicate through multiple 100-Mbps links.
This arrangement streamlines forwarding and routing control and runs Internet-scale
backbone networks at high speeds.
the Routing Engine and the Packet Forwarding Engines.
Figure 1 on page 6 shows the relationship between
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