Understanding NCS5500 Jericho+ Systems and their scalability

12 minutes read

You can find more content related to NCS5500 including routing memory management, VRF, URPF, ACLs, Netflow following this link.

S01E06 Introduction of the Jericho+ based platforms and impact on the scale

Update: This article has been edited in June 2018 to fix an error on the 6.3.2 behavior.

Update2: In August 2018, we added information on the MOD systems and line cards.

Previously on “Understanding NCS5500 Resources”

In previous posts, we presented:

In this episode we will introduce and study a second generation of line cards and systems based on an evolution of the Forwarding ASIC.

Jericho+

This Forwarding ASIC from Broadcom re-uses all of the principles of the Jericho generation, simply extending some scales:

  • the bandwidth capabilities and consequently, the interfaces count: we can now accomodate 9x 100G interfaces line rate per ASIC
  • the forwarding capability , extending it to 835MPPS (the performance is the same with lookups in internal databases or external TCAM)
  • some memories like LPM (for certain models) and EEDB. Also we will use a new generation eTCAM (significantly larger).

“Certain models”? Yes, J+ exists in different flavors. Some are re-using the same LEM/LPM scale than Jericho and some others have a larger LPM memory (qualified for 1M to 1.3M instead of 256K to 350+K IPv4 entries).

J-J+-FE3600.jpg

Both Jericho and Jericho+ can be used with current Fabric Cards (FE3600). Some restrictions may apply for the 16-slot chassis, please contact your local account team to discuss the specifics.

New systems using this J+ ASIC

In the modular chassis:

In March 2018, we had a single line card using Jericho+: the 36x100G-A-SE (more LC are coming in the summer).

36x100G-SE.jpg

The line card is timing capable (note: an RP-E is necessary to use these timing features) and only exists in scale version (with eTCAM). The supported scale in current release is 4M+ IPv4 entries. It does not include MACsec chipset. It’s also the first line card supporting break-out cable 4x 25G.

Internally, the line is composed of 4 Jericho+ (each one handling 9 ports QSFP). As shown in this diagram, each Jericho+ Forwarding ASIC is connected to the fabric cards via 8x 25G SERDES instead of 6 in the case of Jericho-based line cards.

36x100G-SE-1.jpg

In July 2018, we added the support of MOD line cards: NC55-MOD-A-S

nc55-mod2.jpg

This line card offers more flexbility with fixed ports and two MPA bays. It’s powered by a single Jericho+ ASIC.

nc55-mod-block-diagram.jpg

We are also extending the fixed-form factor portfolio with 3x 1RU and 2x 2RU

  • NCS55A1-36H-S
  • NCS55A1-36H-SE-S
  • NCS55A1-24H
  • NCS-55A2-MOD-HD-S
  • NCS-55A2-MOD-S

Let’s get started with the 36 ports options.

These standalone systems are MACsec + timing capable and are available in base (NCS55A1-36H-S) and scale versions (NCS55A1-36H-SE-S). Both have the same port density.

The base version shows the same route scale than a Jericho systems without external TCAM while the scale version uses a new generation eTCAM extending the scale to 4M IPv4 routes (potentially much more in the future).

NCS55A1-36H-SE-S.jpg

Internally, the system is composed of 4 Jericho+ ASICs (each one handling 9 ports QSFP) interconnected via an FE3600 chipset.

NCS55A1-36H-SE-S-1.jpg

The third router: NCS55A1-24H.

It’s a cost optimized, oversubscribbed, system that provides 24 ports QSFP. It is timing-capable but doesn’t support MACsec.

NCS55A1-24H.jpg

As shown in this diagram, the forwarding ASICs are connected back-to-back without using any fabric engine. Each ASIC handles 12 ports for a 900Gbps forwarding capability (hence the oversubscription).

NCS55A1-24H-1.jpg

We will describe it in more details in the next sections but this system uses the largest version of Jericho+ ASICs. It doesn’t use external TCAM but has a large LPM (1M to 1.3M prefixes instead of the 256K-350K we use on other systems in chassis or in the NCS55A1-36H-S).

Moving on the second category, the 2-RU Modular Fixed Systems:

Modular and Fixed… Hmmm…

Indeed these routers are not chassis in the sense they don’t have slots to host line cards, but still they offer a lot of flexbility. They offer both fixed ports (40x SFP+) and two bays to host MPAs:

  • 12x 10G, with 10G LAN, WAN, OTN, 10G DWDM
  • 2x CFP2_DCO (OTN, 100G/200G DWDM)
  • 1x CFP2_DCO (OTN, 100G/200G DWDM) + 2x QSFP28 (4x10G / 40G / 100G)
  • 4x QSFP28 (4x10G / 40G /100G)

In 6.5.1, we offer two flavors of the chassis: base and hardened. The second being temperature hardened, it can support more challenging environmental conditions.

55a2-mod.jpg

The system is powered by a single Jericho+ and is capable of MACsec on the 16 first ports and on MPAs.

ncs55a2-mod-block-diagram.jpg

Let’s talk about route scale

First, a quick reminder: the order of operation for route lookup in the NCS5500 family. It applies for both Jericho and Jericho+ systems.

lookup-process.jpg

The prefixes are stored in LEM, LPM and when possible eTCAM.

NCS55A1-36H-S / NCS-55A2-MOD-HD-S / NCS-55A2-MOD-S Scale

On these systems, the principles of prefixes storage are exactly the same than Jericho systems without eTCAM.

So it’s possible to use two different modes:

  • by default: the host mode

36H-S-host.jpg

  • changed by configuration: the internet mode

36H-S-internet.jpg

I invite you take a look at the second and third episode of this series. You will find detailed explanations and examples with real internet views.

NCS55A1-36H-SE-S Scale

The NCS55A1-36H-SE-S is using the same Jericho+ ASIC but completed with a new generation and much larger external TCAM. In current release, it’s certified for 4M IPv4 prefixes but the memory capabilities are significantly larger. We will decide in the future if it’s necessary to increase the tested/validated scale.

Also, please note that the way we sort routes is different between 6.3.15 and 6.3.2.

6315-632.jpg

The uRPF does not affect the scale of this eTCAM (on the contrary of the first generation where it was necessary to disable the dual capacity feature, reducing the eTCAM to 1M entries). Also, the hybrid ACLs are using a different zone of the eTCAM memory and don’t affect the overall scale.


RP/0/RP0/CPU0:5508-6.3.2#sh route sum

Route Source                     Routes     Backup     Deleted     Memory(bytes)
local                            7          0          0           1680
local LSPV                       1          1          0           480
connected                        6          1          0           1680
static                           1          0          0           240
ospf 1                           5          0          0           1200
bgp 100                          1186410    0          0           284738400
isis 1                           0          0          0           0
dagr                             0          0          0           0
Total                            1186430    2          0           284743680

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:5508-6.3.2#sh route ipv6 sum

Route Source                     Routes     Backup     Deleted     Memory(bytes)
local                            7          0          0           1848
local LSPV                       1          1          0           528
connected                        5          2          0           1848
connected l2tpv3_xconnect        0          0          0           0
static                           0          0          0           0
bgp 100                          58860      0          0           15539040
isis 1                           0          0          0           0
Total                            58873      3          0           15543264

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:5508-6.3.2#sh dpa resource iproute loc 0/1/CPU0

"iproute" DPA Table (Id: 24, Scope: Global)
--------------------------------------------------
IPv4 Prefix len distribution
Prefix   Actual       Prefix   Actual
 /0       5            /1       0
 /2       0            /3       0
 /4       5            /5       0
 /6       0            /7       0
 /8       16           /9       13
 /10      35           /11      106
 /12      285          /13      550
 /14      1066         /15      1880
 /16      13419        /17      7773
 /18      13636        /19      25026
 /20      38261        /21      43073
 /22      80751        /23      67073
 /24      376991       /25      567
 /26      2032         /27      4863
 /28      15599        /29      16868
 /30      41735        /31      52
 /32      434792
                          NPU ID: NPU-0           NPU-1           NPU-2           NPU-3
                          In Use: 1186472         1186472         1186472         1186472
                 Create Requests
                           Total: 1186472         1186472         1186472         1186472
                         Success: 1186472         1186472         1186472         1186472
                 Delete Requests
                           Total: 0               0               0               0
                         Success: 0               0               0               0
                 Update Requests
                           Total: 8               8               8               8
                         Success: 6               6               6               6
                    EOD Requests
                           Total: 0               0               0               0
                         Success: 0               0               0               0
                          Errors
                     HW Failures: 0               0               0               0
                Resolve Failures: 0               0               0               0
                 No memory in DB: 0               0               0               0
                 Not found in DB: 0               0               0               0
                    Exists in DB: 0               0               0               0

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:5508-6.3.2#sh dpa resource ip6route loc 0/1/CPU0

"ip6route" DPA Table (Id: 25, Scope: Global)
--------------------------------------------------
IPv6 Prefix len distribution
Prefix   Actual            Capacity    Prefix   Actual            Capacity
 /0       5                 0            /1       0                 0
 /2       0                 0            /3       0                 0
 /4       0                 0            /5       0                 0
 /6       0                 0            /7       0                 0
 /8       0                 0            /9       0                 0
 /10      5                 0            /11      0                 0
 /12      0                 0            /13      0                 0
 /14      0                 0            /15      0                 0
 /16      16                0            /17      0                 0
 /18      0                 0            /19      2                 0
 /20      9                 0            /21      3                 0
 /22      4                 0            /23      4                 0
 /24      19                0            /25      6                 0
 /26      15                0            /27      17                0
 /28      78                0            /29      1848              0
 /30      153               0            /31      127               0
 /32      9279              0            /33      487               0
 /34      345               0            /35      357               0
 /36      1436              0            /37      199               0
 /38      673               0            /39      154               0
 /40      2239              0            /41      206               0
 /42      369               0            /43      113               0
 /44      2213              0            /45      178               0
 /46      1451              0            /47      356               0
 /48      19222             0            /49      0                 0
 /50      0                 0            /51      1                 0
 /52      1                 0            /53      0                 0
 /54      0                 0            /55      0                 0
 /56      11540             0            /57      16                0
 /58      0                 0            /59      0                 0
 /60      0                 0            /61      0                 0
 /62      0                 0            /63      0                 0
 /64      4940              0            /65      0                 0
 /66      0                 0            /67      0                 0
 /68      0                 0            /69      0                 0
 /70      0                 0            /71      0                 0
 /72      0                 0            /73      0                 0
 /74      0                 0            /75      0                 0
 /76      0                 0            /77      0                 0
 /78      0                 0            /79      0                 0
 /80      0                 0            /81      0                 0
 /82      0                 0            /83      0                 0
 /84      0                 0            /85      0                 0
 /86      0                 0            /87      0                 0
 /88      0                 0            /89      0                 0
 /90      0                 0            /91      0                 0
 /92      0                 0            /93      0                 0
 /94      0                 0            /95      0                 0
 /96      1                 0            /97      0                 0
 /98      0                 0            /99      0                 0
 /100     0                 0            /101     0                 0
 /102     0                 0            /103     0                 0
 /104     6                 0            /105     0                 0
 /106     0                 0            /107     0                 0
 /108     0                 0            /109     0                 0
 /110     0                 0            /111     0                 0
 /112     0                 0            /113     0                 0
 /114     0                 0            /115     4                 0
 /116     0                 0            /117     0                 0
 /118     0                 0            /119     0                 0
 /120     0                 0            /121     0                 0
 /122     71                0            /123     0                 0
 /124     0                 0            /125     0                 0
 /126     0                 0            /127     18                0
 /128     722               0
                          NPU ID: NPU-0           NPU-1           NPU-2           NPU-3
                          In Use: 58908           58908           58908           58908
                 Create Requests
                           Total: 58908           58908           58908           58908
                         Success: 58908           58908           58908           58908
                 Delete Requests
                           Total: 0               0               0               0
                         Success: 0               0               0               0
                 Update Requests
                           Total: 2               2               2               2
                         Success: 1               1               1               1
                    EOD Requests
                           Total: 0               0               0               0
                         Success: 0               0               0               0
                          Errors
                     HW Failures: 0               0               0               0
                Resolve Failures: 0               0               0               0
                 No memory in DB: 0               0               0               0
                 Not found in DB: 0               0               0               0
                    Exists in DB: 0               0               0               0

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:5508-6.3.2#sh contr npu resources lem loc 0/1/CPU0

HW Resource Information
    Name                            : lem

OOR Information
    NPU-0
        Estimated Max Entries       : 786432
        Red Threshold               : 95
        Yellow Threshold            : 80
        OOR State                   : Green

-- SNIP --

Current Usage
    NPU-0
        Total In-Use                : 0        (0 %)
        iproute                     : 0        (0 %)
        ip6route                    : 0        (0 %)
        mplslabel                   : 4        (0 %)

-- SNIP --

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:5508-6.3.2#sh contr npu resources lpm loc 0/1/CPU0

HW Resource Information
    Name                            : lpm

OOR Information
    NPU-0
        Estimated Max Entries       : 338879
        Red Threshold               : 95
        Yellow Threshold            : 80
        OOR State                   : Green

-- SNIP --

Current Usage
    NPU-0
        Total In-Use                : 26       (0 %)
        iproute                     : 0        (0 %)
        ip6route                    : 0        (0 %)
        ipmcroute                   : 1        (0 %)

-- SNIP --

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:5508-6.3.2#sh contr npu resources exttcamipv4 loc 0/1/CPU0

HW Resource Information
    Name                            : ext_tcam_ipv4

OOR Information
    NPU-0
        Estimated Max Entries       : 4000000
        Red Threshold               : 95
        Yellow Threshold            : 80
        OOR State                   : Green
        
-- SNIP --

Current Usage
    NPU-0
        Total In-Use                : 1186457  (30 %)
        iproute                     : 1186472  (30 %)

-- SNIP --

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:5508-6.3.2#sh contr npu resources exttcamipv6 loc 0/1/CPU0

HW Resource Information
    Name                            : ext_tcam_ipv6

OOR Information
    NPU-0
        Estimated Max Entries       : 2000000<
        Red Threshold               : 95
        Yellow Threshold            : 80
        OOR State                   : Green

-- SNIP --

Current Usage
    NPU-0
        Total In-Use                : 58878    (3 %)
        ip6route                    : 58908    (3 %)

-- SNIP --

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:5508-6.3.2#sh contr npu externaltcam loc 0/1/CPU0

External TCAM Resource Information
=============================================================
NPU  Bank   Entry  Owner       Free     Per-DB  DB   DB
     Id     Size               Entries  Entry   ID   Name
=============================================================
0    0      80b    FLP         7300158  1186457  0    IPv4 UC
0    1      80b    FLP         0        0       1    IPv4 RPF
0    2      160b   FLP         10963645  58878   3    IPv6 UC
0    3      160b   FLP         0        0       4    IPv6 RPF
0    4      80b    FLP         4096     0       81   INGRESS_IPV4_SRC_IP_EXT
0    5      80b    FLP         4096     0       82   INGRESS_IPV4_DST_IP_EXT
0    6      160b   FLP         4096     0       83   INGRESS_IPV6_SRC_IP_EXT
0    7      160b   FLP         4096     0       84   INGRESS_IPV6_DST_IP_EXT
0    8      80b    FLP         4096     0       85   INGRESS_IP_SRC_PORT_EXT
0    9      80b    FLP         4096     0       86   INGRESS_IPV6_SRC_PORT_EXT

-- SNIP --

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:5508-6.3.2#


NCS55A1-24H Scale

The NCS55A1-24H is very different from the other NCS5500 routers because it uses a pair of Jericho+ with large LPM. So it occupies a particular place between the non-eTCAM and the eTCAM systems.

This large LPM is algorithmic, so even if it’s marketed for 1M IPv4 entries, it can fit much more depending on the prefix distribution:


HW Resource Information
    Name                            : lem

OOR Information
    NPU-0
        Estimated Max Entries       : 786432
        Red Threshold               : 95
        Yellow Threshold            : 80
        OOR State                   : Green

HW Resource Information
    Name                            : lpm

OOR Information
    NPU-0
        Estimated Max Entries       : 1384333
        Red Threshold               : 95
        Yellow Threshold            : 80
        OOR State                   : Green

Like the other non-eTCAM systems, we can use two different configurations: the host-optimized mode (default) and the internet-optimized mode.

24H-host-internet.jpg

Let’s take a full internet table made of 655487 v4 and 42852 v6 real routes and check how it fits in this system.

With the host optimized mode:

24h-host.jpg

And with the internet optimized mode:

24h-internet.jpg

Conclusion

Three different options with the Jericho+ systems: J+ with Jericho-scale, J+ with large LPM, J+ with new generation eTCAM. They are used in one new line card offering very high route scalability (4M+ routes), and in three new 1RU systems.

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