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The E1200 System
The Dell Force10 E1200 system is a carrier-class, high-capacity aggregation router. The 16-slot modular
system provides two slots dedicated for Route Processor Modules (RPMs) and 14 slots for line cards with
Layer 2 switching and Layer 3 and routing capabilities.
Operating Overview
The E1200 system requires a Route Processor Module (RPM), at least one line card, and at least eight
Switch Fabric Modules (SFM3s) for packet processing. The RPM is the core for routing and control
operations; all traffic destined for the E1200i terminates on the RPM. Routing table entries are built on
the RPM and directed to the forwarding information tables on the line cards.
Software processes, such as Telnet, SNMP, CLI, Layer 2, and Layer 3 functions, are divided among three
CPUs for redundancy and speed. Independent software images run on each CPU. Each CPU has its own
memory, which isolates processes from each other, increasing reliability. Operating the E1200 system
with redundant RPMs enables automatic fail-over redundancy.
Line cards perform all data forwarding operations. Each line card has at least one Force10 Networks
proprietary ASIC. The FPC accepts packets, feeds packets to input/output ports, handles packet
classification (access lists, and Layer 2 and Layer 3 lookups), and packet-marking (Diffserv or 802.1p).
The BTM is responsible for all queuing operations.
The internal flash memory device shipped with the RPM contains the boot ROM and runtime images.
Each RPM accommodates an external flash memory card and two USB ports that can be used to copy and
store system boot, software images, and configuration files. For information about using a flash card or
USB ports, refer to
Chapter 13, Using a Flash Memory
Card.
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The E1200 System
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