MMC Networks to Expand Network Processor, Switch Fabric, and Traffic Management Platforms

MMC Networksth march toward what the company deems the first software-programmable OC-192c network processor, <%=company%> (Sunnyvale, CA) plans to extend the capacity of its network processing platforms, combined processors, switch fabrics, and integrated traffic management software. The list of initiatives includes OC-192c software-programmable, policy-enabled network processors to rates; 160 Gb/s full-duplex (320 Gb/s aggregate) multi-service switch fabrics; and 10 Gb/s carrier-class traffic management capabilities.

The OC-192c network processor will use patented network-optimized instruction set RISC technology and extensible network processor software architecture to support wire-speed, single-stream (clear channel) 10 Gb/s connections while preserving software compatibility with earlier developments. A single-chip solution is in the works for next year.

The platform will use only six cores, without any new fundamental architectural advances, as opposed to rival approaches that integrate from 12 to 16 general-purpose RISC cores just to achieve multi-stream OC-48, which poses challenges in terms of both integration density and software complexity in scaling to OC-192c and beyond, according to MMC.

Complementing the network processor project, MMC will also extend its matching switch fabrics from 20 Gb/s full-duplex (40 Gb/s aggregate) capacity to 160 Gb/s (320 Gb/s aggregate) crossbar switching capacity. The platform will support up to 16 full-duplex 10 Gbps OC-192c ATM circuits, packet over SONET, or 10 Gb/s Ethernet interfaces with significantly lower chip count than existing solutions

MMC's roadmap also includes a low chip-count 10 Gb/s traffic management solution that provides both richer function and even greater capacity for queues and flows. This traffic management solution complements MMC's OC-48c and OC-192c network processors and is required functionality to scale to terabit switching solutions.

The platforms that MMC ships today seamlessly combine network processors and switch fabrics with carrier-class, fine-grained traffic management. The products support tens of thousands of subscribers, hundreds of thousands of queues, and a variety of queuing and scheduling methods, such as Weighted Fair Queuing, Weighted Round Robin, and Credit-Based Flow Control.

Edited by Erik Kreifeldt