Executive Overview
The Cisco® Catalyst® 6500 Supervisor Engine 32 is the latest addition to the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Family of supervisor modules. Designed primarily for access layer deployments, the Supervisor Engine 32 provides Layer 2 bridging and Layer 2 through 4 services with Layer 3 routing optional hardware-accelerated services. It provides connectivity into the classic 32-Gbps switching bus and provides Layer 2 and 3 switching performance up to 15 Mbps.
This new supervisor contains technology elements found in earlier supervisor models as well as a number of new technology enhancements. The Supervisor Engine 32 includes the following features:
• Two Supervisor Engine 32 models providing either of the following
– 8 Gigabit Ethernet Small Form-Factor Pluggables (SFPs) and 1 10/100/1000TX uplink ports
– 2 10-Gigabit Ethernet uplink ports and 1 10/100/1000 TX port
• Integrated policy feature card (PFC3B)
• Integrated multilayer switch feature card (MSFC2a)
• Classic 32-Gbps bus connection
• Two Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports on front panel
• Compact Flash slot
• Console port
• 256-MB bootflash
• 256-MB DRAM upgradable to 1 GB
The most obvious difference from earlier supervisor modules is the presence of eight SFP-based Gigabit Ethernet ports on the front of one of the Supervisor Engine 32 modules. These front ports can help reduce the need to use a chassis slot for a Gigabit Ethernet module where only a few Gigabit Ethernet ports are required. The other Supervisor Engine 32 model sees the introduction of 10-Gigabit Ethernet as an uplink technology for the first time.
Two USB ports are also on the front panel, one designated for host use (Type "A" USB port) and the other as a device port (Type "B" USB port). Host USB ports can be used to plug in devices such as a PC, while device ports can be used for attaching devices such as a Flash memory key. These ports will be enabled in a post First Customer Ship release of code.
The integrated PFC3B is included on the Supervisor Engine 32 to enhance its quality-of-service (QoS) and security capabilities. With the PFC3B, the Supervisor Engine 32 can support hardware-based QoS and security access control lists (ACLs) using Layer 2, 3, and 4 classification criteria to secure and prioritize target data. Standard PFC3B enhancements can also be utilized, allowing the Supervisor Engine 32 to take advantage of new hardware accelerated features such as CPU rate limiters, ACL hit counters, port access control lists (PACLs), and improvements in route and NetFlow capacities, to name a few.
The MSFC2a is also integrated into the Supervisor Engine 32 to enable it to be a full-fledged Layer 3 switch. At FCS, the Supervisor Engine 32 will act purely as a Layer 2 device. A Cisco IOS® Software option to enable Layer 3 services on the supervisor will become available at a future date. The forwarding architecture used by the MSFC2a and PFC3 is Cisco Express Forwarding, which is the Cisco Systems® architecture for providing Layer 3 switching in hardware. In the future, the option of adding a programmable intelligent services adapter (PISA) daughter card, which integrates the functionality of the MSFC2a into the card, will be provided along with hardware accelerate support for advanced Layer 4 to 7 services such as hardware-accelerated network-based application recognition (NBAR).
This document will explore the capabilities of the new Supervisor Engine 32. It will provide an insight into the hardware architecture of the new supervisor, the features it supports, the packet flow through the Supervisor Engine 32, and a summary of its performance characteristics
Hardware Architecture
There are numerous aspects to the architecture of the Supervisor Engine 32, which are explored in more detail in the following sections.
Supervisor Baseboard Features
The Supervisor Engine 32 baseboard is visually different from that of other Cisco Catalyst 6500 supervisor options. The initial Supervisor Engine 32 that was shipped provided for eight SFP-based Gigabit Ethernet ports and a single 10/100/1000TX RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port. All nine ports are capable of the same bridging, routing, QoS, ACLs, and so on as separate Ethernet modules, and these ports can all be used at the same time. (See Figure 1.)
Figure 1. Supervisor Engine 32 with Eight SFP Gigabit Ethernet Ports
The Supervisor Engine 32-10GE is the second Supervisor Engine 32 option now shipping. It provides two front 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports (using XENPAK optics). Like its counterpart, both 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports can be used at the same time in addition to the 10/100/100TX port, which is available on the front panel. (See Figure 2.)
Figure 2. Supervisor Engine 32 with Two 10-Gigabit Ethernet Ports
Both Supervisor Engine 32 models incorporate a Compact Flash type II slot, located to the left on the front panel of the module. A console port is also available on the front panel should console access be required. At the far right of the front panel are two USB ports. These ports are disabled, but will be enabled in a future software release. The USB ports differ from an operational perspective in that one is designated as a host port and the other as a device port. (See Figure 3.)
Figure 3. Supervisor Engine 32 Front Panel
The Supervisor Engine 32 uses internal Compact Flash, which replaces the bootflash used in other supervisor modules. This internal Compact Flash is physically the same type of Compact Flash used externally. The default amount of bootflash available in the Supervisor Engine 32 is 256 MB. The internal Compact Flash can only be accessed when the module is removed from the chassis. This Compact Flash is able to store images that can be used to boot the system. The terminology used to access this Compact Flash from the command-line interface (CLI) differs slightly from what was used to access bootflash. This Compact Flash is referred to as "BOOTDISK:" and changes to the CLI have been made to allow this to be referenced.
The supervisor can take advantage of the PFC3B, enabling a range of advanced hardware that can accelerate certain features. Some of these features are available at First Customer Ship, while others will be enabled in a future software release. Full Layer 3 functionality is now available with either a hybrid software implementation (Cisco Catalyst OS plus MSFC Cisco IOS Software) or native Cisco IOS Software. Both the PFC and MSFC options and the features they provide are discussed later in this paper.
The specifications of the Supervisor Engine 32 baseboard have also been upgraded when compared to earlier supervisor options. Table 1 compares the baseboard components available with the Supervisor Engine 32 to those in earlier wiring closet supervisors.
Table 1. Supervisor Engine 32 Baseboard Component Comparison
It is worthwhile noting that although the Supervisor Engine 32 supports a maximum of 1 GB of DRAM, this really doesn't add value over the default 512MB DRAM while the PFC3B is only limited to supporting up to 256K routes in the hardware forwarding tables.
Chassis Options
The Supervisor Engine 32 supports all existing Cisco Catalyst 6500 chassis as well as the new "E" series chassis. It is not supported in the Cisco Catalyst 6006 or 6009 Switch chassis. Like other Catalyst 6500 supervisors, it must be placed into a specific slot. That slot is dependent on the chassis model. Table 2 highlights which chassis slots support the Supervisor Engine 32.
Table 2. Supervisor Engine 32 Slot Dependencies
Supervisor Engine 32 Fan and Power Supply Requirements
With all chassis options, the presence of a Supervisor Engine 32 will require a new high-speed fan. For the "E" series chassis, this is a not an issue as they all ship with a default high-speed fan. With the exception of the Cisco Catalyst 6509-NEB-A, the current (that is, non "E" series) chassis typically have two fan options, of which only one is compatible with the Supervisor Engine 32. The high-speed fan option needs to be selected for all chassis using the Supervisor Engine 32. The original fan and high-speed fan for the non "E" series chassis are both shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Catalyst 6500 Fans
For operational purposes, the fans in the right column in Table 3 must be used with the Supervisor Engine 32.
Table 3. Fan Options for Cisco Catalyst 6500 Chassis
In addition to the high-speed fan, the Supervisor Engine 32 also requires a minimum of a 2500W power supply or higher (AC or DC) to drive the new supervisor. If either a low-speed fan or a power supply less than 2500W is used, then a warning message will be displayed on bootup, and the switch will be shut down. For countries using 110V, both the 2500W and 3000W power supplies can still be used, but the power supply will run at approximately 50 percent capacity. To run those supplies at full capacity requires a 220V circuit.
The actual output power requirements of the baseboard and the individual components are listed in Table 4.
Table 4. Power Requirements
|
Component |
Supervisor Engine 32-8GE |
Supervisor Engine 32-10GE |
PFC3B |
MSFC2a |
|
Power Requirement |
1.89A |
2.39A |
1.47A |
0.33A |
The power requirements of the modules when combined together are detailed in Table 5 (figures @110V):
Table 5. AC Power Requirements of Supervisor Engine 32 with Components
|
Module |
Output Current |
Output Power |
Heat Dissipation: AC (BTU/Hr) |
|
WS-Sup32-GE-3B |
3.69A |
154.98W |
661.57 |
|
WS-Sup32-10GE |
4.19A |
175.98W |
751.21 |
In a DC environment, the power values change slightly and are detailed in Table 6 (at-48VDC).
Table 6. DC Power Requirements of Supervisor Engine 32 with Components
|
Module |
Output Current |
Output Power |
Heat Dissipation: DC (BTU/Hr) |
|
WS-Sup32-GE-3B |
3.69A |
154.98W |
715.21 |
|
WS-Sup32-10GE |
4.19A |
175.98W |
812.12 |
Supervisor Engine 32 and Line Cards
The Supervisor Engine 32 is a "classic" module, meaning it provides a connection to the "classic" 32-Gb bus to communicate with other line cards present in the chassis. Unlike some of the other supervisors, it has no built-in switch fabric, nor can it take advantage of a separate switch fabric module. This mode of operation thus defines the type of line cards that can work with this supervisor. Any line card that does not support data transfer over the classic bus cannot interoperate with the Supervisor Engine 32. A full list of the line card architectures supported with the Supervisor Engine 32 is in Table 7.
Table 7. Line-Card Architecture Compatibility with Supervisor Engine 32
As Table 7 shows, the Supervisor Engine 32 supports both CEF256 and classic line-card architectures. On both of these line cards there is a connector at the back of the line card that provides connectivity into the classic 32-Gb bus. This connector can be seen in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Connectors for Classic and CEF256 Line Cards
Supervisor Engine 32 Baseboard Architecture
The architecture of the Supervisor Engine 32 is similar to that of other Catalyst 6500 supervisors; however, it does have some unique aspects. The architecture of the Supervisor Engine 32 is shown in Figures 6 and 7.
Figure 6. Supervisor Engine 32-8GE Baseboard Architecture
Figure 7. Supervisor Engine 32-10GE Baseboard Architecture
The Supervisor Engine 32 baseboard incorporates a default set of onboard application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for providing the foundation for Layer 2 through 4 services and interfacing into the 32-Gbps switching backplane. A single ASIC is used to connect the supervisor into the classic bus. This ASIC is also used for multicast replication and the switched port analyzer (SPAN) functionality. As can be seen in the diagram, this ASIC also interfaces into the multicast expansion table (MET), which provides the switch with an understanding of multicast group membership.
A switch processor (SP CPU) is used to perform all Layer 2 control plane processes, such as Cisco Discovery Protocol, Spanning Tree Protocol, and VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP). The SP CPU has its own set of DRAM (256 MB), which is upgradable to 1 GB of bootflash and nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM is also dedicated to the SP CPU). Internal Compact Flash (256 MB) is used for the bootflash, and the SP CPU has access to 2 MB of NVRAM.
An onboard port ASIC is used to drive the front nine Gigabit Ethernet ports or the two 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports. All of the Gigabit Ethernet ports use SFP gigabit interface converters (GBICs). Different SFP options are available depending on the distance requirements. In redundant mode, all ports on both the primary and redundant supervisor are active. In a fully redundant chassis with two Supervisor Engine 32 modules, a total of 18 active Gigabit Ethernet ports will be available for use.
Integrated support for the PFC3B brings a range of advanced hardware accelerated features to the Supervisor Engine 32 and places the functionality of this supervisor well ahead of its wiring closet predecessors. The PFC3B provides a host of hardware-enabled features, allowing the Supervisor Engine 32 to functionally interoperate with the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 720. Features such as PACLs, ACL hit counters, CPU rate limiters, QoS and security ACLs, and more are all built into the hardware.
The shared 32-Gbps bus allows all connected ports (both the supervisor and line cards) to both transmit and receive data. The switching bus is actually composed of three discrete buses, each serving a specific function in the switching operation: the data bus (DBus), the results bus (RBus), and the Ethernet out-of-band control bus (EOBC).
The DBus is the main bus over which all data is transmitted. This bus is 256 bits wide and is clocked at 62.5 Mhz, which yields bandwidth of 16 Gbps. The common practice in the industry is to state performance in full duplex numbers; as this bus can send 16 G of data and receive 16 G of data, Cisco refers to the bus as a 32-Gbps bus. The RBus is the bus that is used by the supervisor engine to forward the result of the forwarding operation to each of the attached line cards. This bus also operates at 62.5 Mhz but is only 64 bits wide but is never the performance bottleneck. Finally, the EOBC is the control bus that relays control information between the line cards and the switch processor CPU.
The Supervisor Engine 32 supports the integrated MSFC2a. This MSFC option is functionally equivalent to the MSFC2 found on the Supervisor Engine 2. The only exception is that the MSFC2a supports up to 1 GB DRAM compared to 512 MB on the Supervisor Engine 2 MSFC2 (WS-F6K-MSFC2).
The Route Processor (RP) CPU has 64 MB of bootflash available to it along with 2 MB of NVRAM. A full duplex, 1-Gbps in-band connection allows the MSFC2a to communicate with other components on the Supervisor Engine 32 baseboard.
In the future, the Supervisor Engine 32 will support an optional PISA. This modular daughter card will include the functionality of the MSFC2a as well as incorporating a programmable network processor, which will allow the Supervisor Engine 32 to provide advanced Layer 4 to 7 services in hardware.
The initial target of PISA will be to provide hardware-based NBAR at speeds up around 1 to 2 Gbps. The network processor architecture found on the PISA is flexible enough for Cisco to provide other Layer 4 to 7 services in the future.
Supervisor Engine 32 Feature Review
The Supervisor Engine 32 provides a host of features that can be categorized into the following sections.
Supervisor Engine 32 with PFC3B Layer 2 Features
There are a number of Layer 2 features in the PFC3B that differentiate the Supervisor Engine 32 from earlier supervisor models. From a capacity perspective, the Supervisor Engine 32 is similar to the Supervisor Engine 2 in terms of its support for ACLs and MAC addresses. It does differ in that it provides some of the new features previously only found in the Supervisor Engine 720. A comparison of the Supervisor Engine 32 Layer 2 features with the Supervisor Engine 1 and Supervisor Engine 2 is summarized in Table 8. Some features will be enabled at a later date via new software.
Table 8. Wiring Closet Supervisor Layer 2 Feature Comparison