Processor-To-Processor Communication; Route Processor/Fabric Interconnect; Ethernet Line Cards; Functional Description - Cisco ASR 9000 series Reference Manual

Chapter 2

Functional Description

Processor-to-Processor Communication

The RSP card communicates with the control processors on each line card through the Ethernet Over
Backplane Channel (EOBC) Gigabit Ethernet switch. This path is for processor-to-processor
communication, such as IPC (InterProcess Communication). The Active RSP card also uses the EOBC to
communicate to the Standby RSP card, if installed.

Route Processor/Fabric Interconnect

To enable communication with the switch fabric, the RSP card has a fabric interface chip attached to the
fabric and linked to the route processor through a Gigabit Ethernet interface through a packet diversion
FPGA. This path is used for external traffic diverted to the RSP card by line card network processors.
The packet diversion FPGA has three key functions:
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•
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Ethernet Line Cards

The Ethernet line cards available for the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router are listed in
.
Table 2-4
Line Card
40-port Gigabit Ethernet (40x1GE) line card
8-port10 Gigabit Ethernet (8x10GE) line card XFP
4-port10 Gigabit Ethernet (4x10GE) line card XFP
Functional Description
The Ethernet line cards for the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router provide forwarding throughput of line
rate for packets as small as 64 bytes. The small form factor pluggable (SFP or XFP) transceiver module
ports are polled periodically to keep track of state changes and optical monitor values. Packet features
are implemented within network processor unit (NPU) ASICs
OL-17501-01
D R A F T — C I S C O C O N F I D E N T I A L
Packet header translation between the header used by the fabric interface chip and the header
exchanged with the Ethernet interface on the route processor.
I/O interface protocol conversion (rate-matching) between the 20 Gbps DDR bus from the fabric
interface chip and the 1 Gbps interface on the processor.
Flow control to prevent overflow in the from-fabric buffer within the packet diversion FPGA, in case
of fabric congestion.
Ethernet Line Cards Available for the Cisco ASR 9000 Series Router
Cisco ASR 9000 Aggregation Services Router Overview and Reference Guide
Module Type
SFP
(Figure 2-6).
Ethernet Line Cards
Table 2-4.
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