How white box networking is changing the way we build networks
How white box networking is changing the way we build networks
Blog Article
What is White-box networking?
High-Performance Scalable Routing, Security and Internet Peering for Enterprises, Data Center Operators and Service Providers Networks
White-box switching and routing are the new norms. Service providers are looking for efficiency combined with cost reduction by moving from traditional expensive and dedicated hardware devices to white-box solutions.
The demand for bandwidth-intensive applications such as video streaming, virtual reality and other 5G applications is continuously increasing. The need for advanced scale, fast convergence, protocol visibility, strict security and cross-domain automation are key considerations for a future-proof high-end solution and investment protection.
6WIND’s Virtual Border Router is the leading high-performing software-based router that runs on commodity hardware. It can be used for a variety of network routing use-cases, including:
Universal CPE
Provider Edge
Aggregation routing
Border Internet Peering
Router Reflector (RR)
IPsec VPN aggregation (DMVPN)
Carrier-Grade NAT (CGN)
Data Center Interconnect (DCI) with EVPN/VxLAN capabilities and more.
In this blog, we look at how simple it is to start the white-box networking journey. First, we will look at how to select the software and the white-box hardware. Then, we will also explore the most common Service Provider use cases.
Flexibility to deploy in Virtual Machines or in Bare Metal
6WIND Virtual Border Router can be deployed in virtual machines on your existing virtual infrastructure or in bare metal on the hardware of your choice.
As an example, for a BGP border router, you can set up a high performing full scale-route 10Gbps Peering Border Router by sourcing a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf server with the following server specifications (for less than 3000$ from your preferred supplier):
1x Intel® Xeon® Silver 4215 2.5G, 8C/16T, 9.6GT/s, 11M Cache, Turbo, HT (85W) DDR4-2400
2x 8GB RDIMM, 3200MT/s
1x 480GB SSD SATA Read Intensive 6Gbps 512 2.5in Hot-plug AG Drive, 1 DWPD, 876 TBW
1x Intel X710 Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ & i350 Dual Port 1GbE
CAPEX for such a Border Router (Hardware + 6WIND Virtual Border Router software is the lowest TCO in the market you will find) This is at least half the price compared to similar known hardware vendor solutions with their best-discounted rates.
Moreover, the same hardware can be used as a CG-NAT router in addition to the Border Router function.
Another asset of the 6WIND vRouter solution is the ability to build a 10Gbps CPE by selecting a tabletop entry-level platform such as Dell’s VEP1405, and run 6WIND’s vRouter on top for low traffic requirements.
The Turbo IPSec application provides highly scalable DMVPN capabilities that would allow small, mid-scale and large Enterprise to securely create their own light SD-WAN networks over agnostic transport access such as Fiber, Radio Transmission, LTE and 5G. The 6WIND Turbo IPSec supports 14Gbps to 18Gbps per CPU core (depending on the model performance – Intel Xeon Silver, Gold or Platinum) and up to 100,000 IPSec tunnels per instance with 1000 tunnels established per second. On a 16-core CPU, the Turbo IPSec scales to 200Gbps+. The performance increases linearly with the number of CPU cores installed in the system. As such the solution will scale to meet the ever-increasing demand for encryption.