Extreme Networks Shows New High-Density 100G Router SLX 9740 at NANOG 78

It’s a pleasure to support NANOG 78 (Feb 9-12) with the best networking experts attending from around the world. Since 1987, NANOG has been committed to the ongoing advancement of an open, secure, and robust Internet. It provides a platform that inspires, educates, and empowers the Internet community to meet the ever-changing demands of a global network and is in service of building the internet of tomorrow.

The agenda in San Francisco is jam packed with exciting topics on enhancing the networking industry and companies such as Google, Netflix and others presenting topnotch content around hybrid-cloud, multi-cloud and how to embrace cloud technologies for their customer deployments.

Extreme Networks creates effortless networking experiences that enable all of us to advance. Come visit us at the Beer-n-Gear session on February 11 from 6-8 PM to check out the SLX 9740, the latest addition to the ExtremeRouting family of products (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Extreme Networks – Creating effortless networking experiences that enable all of us to advance (download here)

Internet-Scale Routing Platform

The fixed form factor SLX 9740 router delivers high density 100G with either (2RU) 80 x 100 GbE or (1RU) 40 x 100 GbE ports. It is designed to cost-effectively deliver the scale and performance needed to address the explosive growth in network bandwidth, devices and services for ultra-high-end enterprise and service provider data centers and enable cross connections for Internet Exchange Points (IXPs).

Both platforms are powered by Extreme SLX-OS that provides carrier-class advanced features, such as Extreme routing, Carrier-class MPLS, Carrier Ethernet, and VXLAN overlay technology and is deployed in the most demanding networks around the world.

Ultra-Deep Buffers & Pervasive Visibility

The border router is the interconnection point between internal networks and the internet. With more traffic moving across routers, there is added demand for capacity, the ability to absorb speed mismatches and handle microbursts without compromising performance. The SLX 9740 has ultra-deep buffers of up to 16GB along with intelligent algorithms to ensure optimal performance.

The Extreme Integrated Application Hosting delivers a new approach to network monitoring and troubleshooting with a guest VM and an innovative 10 Gbps internal analytics path. This highly flexible capability enables required data to be extracted from the network, viewed directly via analytics tools on the Guest VM or stored and optimized on-device for cost-effective delivery off-device to cloud-scale management, operational intelligence, and automation systems for additional analysis, action, or archiving. By embedding network visibility on every border router, the Extreme SLX Integrated Application Hosting can help organizations achieve pervasive visibility throughout the network to quickly and efficiently identify problems, accelerate mean-time-to-resolution, and improve overall service levels.

The following paragraphs summarize the ideal use cases for the SLX-9740:

Core and Edge Internet Exchange Points (IXPs)

With new record highs of data and more and more demand for fast Internet speeds at internet exchange points (IXPs), cost per port is a key consideration for customers looking to migrate from 10 GbE to 100 GbE. Ultra-high-density ports with the right mix of technologies (e.g. VPLS and EVPN) provide significant savings in power and cooling costs. This allows peering at 100 GbE speeds from IXPs to their customers (Gaming, Content Caching, large Enterprise) as well as cloud providers (Google Cloud Platform, Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure).

_{Figure 2: ExtremeRouting SLX 9740 – Core and Edge IXP}

Flexible Border Routing Solution

The SLX 9740 is the industry’s most powerful, compact, deep buffer, dual stack IPv4/IPv6 Internet border router. It provides a cost-efficient high-density solution that is purpose-built for the most demanding service provider or large enterprise data centers.

_{Figure 3: ExtremeRouting SLX 9740 – Flexible Border Routing and Data Center Interconnect Solution}

Core-Aggregation

Enterprise and Co-location data centers consolidate on multiple layers and the SLX 9740 can sit as an edge router above the data center network. With the use of MPLS or layer 3 protocols, the router can provide inter-data center connectivity as well as connectivity to Internet peers. Multi-Chassis Trunking (MCT) provides dynamic, flow-based load balancing to multiple network nodes, enabling resilient and high-performance networks. Load balancing, band steering and many other attributes can all be automated.

_{Figure 4: ExtremeRouting SLX 9740 – Core Aggregation}