Enhanced Packet Buffers; Ports; Management Connectivity; Provision Asic Architecture - HP ProCurve 6600 Switch Series Technical Overview

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features, such as QoS and security, to be implemented in a scalable yet granular fashion . With a variety
of connectivity interfaces and expanded buffering, the 6600 switches offer excellent investment protection,
flexibility, and scalability, as well as ease of deployment and reduced operational expense .
From a design standpoint, the 6600-24XG model is essentially the equivalent of a 5406zl chassis configured
with six 4 x 10-Gb modules . Each NGX network chip represents a node in the system with high-speed links
(HSLs) connecting to the interconnect fabric—F2 chip . Each HSL provides approximately 14 .4 Gbps of data
bandwidth and up to 28 .8 Gbps total per NGX interface ASIC . In addition, a management plane dedicates a
CPU to provide communications control between the NGX and F2 fabric chip . Throughput capacities are the
NGX full capacity of 28 .8-Gbps full-duplex or 57 .6-Gbps switching capacity per NGX ASIC . The datasheet
throughput values reflect this full fabric capacity of 345 .6 Gbps of switching capacity . The ProVision ASIC
architecture section that follows covers a few specifics about the NGX ASIC, specifically port mappings to the
HSLs and throughput limitations and caveats .

Enhanced packet buffers

Each 10-Gb set of four ports is sharing an 18-MB packet buffer (compared to the 3500yl and zl modules'
4 .5 MB of packet buffers) .

Ports

• 24 10-GbE SFP+ ports (10-GbE-only speeds)

Management connectivity

• RJ-45 serial console port
• RJ-45 Ethernet out-of-band management port

ProVision ASIC architecture

The ProVision ASIC architecture is the latest-generation HP networking ASIC technology and is used in the
ProCurve 6600 Switch Series, along with the 8200zl, 5400zl, 6200yl, and 3500yl product families . The
ProVision ASIC architecture consists of multiple network chips interconnected by an active crossbar fabric
chip . Depending on the flavor of the ProVision network chip used, the 6600 series product supports either
NG (Gigabit) or NGX (10-Gb) interfaces . Additionally, the 6600-24G/24G-4XG products utilize the F1 fabric
ASIC supporting up to high-speed links (HSLs) of 14 .4 Gbps each for a maximum theoretical fabric capacity
of 172 .8 Gbps full duplex, while the 6600-48G/48G-4XG and 6600-24XG switches utilize the F2 fabric ASIC
that provides up to 12 HSLs for a maximum theoretical fabric capacity of 345 .6 Gbps full duplex .

Inside the ProVision ASIC architecture

Each NG/NGX network chip contains a full, hardware-based Layer 3 routing switch engine as well as Layer
4 filtering and metering capabilities . These latest ProVision ASICs are HP networking's fourth generation of
internally developed switching platforms . The ProVision network switching engines execute all the packet
processing, including Layer 2 and Layer 3 lookups, Layer 2/Layer 3/Layer 4 filtering and forwarding decisions,
VLAN forwarding and routing, LACP trunking
capabilities and software implementation are common across ProCurve 6600, 8200zl, 5400zl, 6200yl, and
3500yl series switch families .

Classification and lookup

When an Ethernet packet first arrives, the classifier section determines the packet characteristics, its source
and destination addresses, VLAN affiliation, any priority specification, and so on . The packet is stored in input
memory; lookups into the table memory are done to determine routing information; and a ProVision ASIC-
specific packet header is created for the packet with this information . This header is then forwarded to the
Policy Enforcement Engine .
HP networking's term "trunking" is the aggregation of multiple physical links into one logical link. Other vendors may refer to this as Channels or Link
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Aggregated Groups (LAGs).
, and priority queuing determinations . The ProVision hardware
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