what's the product Architecture of Huawei NE40E Router

Huawei NE40E Universal Service Router is a high-end router. Huawei NE40E is positioned as the edge or convergence router on the IP backbone network. The NE40E series routers, including Huawei NE40E-X16, Huawei NE40E-X8 and Huawei NE40E-X3, are suitable for networks of different scales. Huawei NE40E-X3/X8/X16 product architecture includes the following:

Physical Architecture

The physical architecture includes the following systems:

• Power distribution system
• Functional host system
• Heat dissipation system
• Network management system

All systems except the network management system (NMS) are located in an integrated cabinet. The power distribution system consists of power modules working in n+n backup mode.

The functional host system comprises the system backplane,/Main Processing Units (MPUs), Line Processing Units (LPUs), Switch and Fabric Units (SFUs). It is connected to the NMS through NMS interfaces. The functional host system processes data as well as monitors and manages the entire system, including the power distribution system and heat dissipation system.

Logical Architecture

The logical architecture of the NE40E consists of the following planes:

• Data plane
• Control and management plane
• Monitoring plane

The data plane is responsible for high speed processing and non-blocking switching of data packets. It encapsulates or decapsulates packets, forwards IPv4/IPv6/MPLS packets, performs QoS as well as scheduling and internal high-speed switching, and collects statistics.

The control and management plane completes all control and management functions for the system and is the core of the entire system. Control and management units provide control system status. They process, maintain, manage and provide reporting for protocols and signals.

The monitoring plane monitors the ambient environment to ensure secure and stable operation of the system. It detects voltage levels, controls system power-on and-off, monitors temperature, and controls fan modules. When a unit fails, the monitoring plane isolates the faulty unit promptly so that other parts of the system can continue to run normally.

Software Architecture

Software of the NE40E consists of the Routing Process System (RPS), power monitoring system, fan monitoring system, Forwarding Support Unit (FSU), and Express Forwarding Unit (EFU).

The RPS, which includes IPOS software, VRP software, and product-adaptation software, is the control and management module that runs on the MPU. The RPS on the active MPU and the one on the standby MPU back up each other. RPSs support IPv4/IPv6, MPLS, LDP, and routing protocols, calculate routes, establish LSPs and multicast distribution trees, generate unicast, multicast, and MPLS forwarding tables, and they deliver information concerning all the preceding mentioned to the LPU.

Data Forwarding Process

The Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE) adopts a Network Processor (NP) or an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) to implement high-speed packet routing. External memory types include Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), and Net Search Engine (NSE). The SRAM stores forwarding entries; the DRAM stores packets; the NSE performs searching routing table.

Data forwarding processes can be divided into upstream and downstream processes based on the direction of the data flow.

• Upstream process: The Physical Interface Card (PIC) encapsulates packets to frames and then sends them to the PFE. On the PFE of the inbound interface, the system decapsulates the frames and identifies the packet types. It then classifies traffic according to the QoS configurations on the inbound interface. After traffic classification, the system searches the Forwarding Information Base (FIB) for the outbound interfaces and next hops of packets to be forwarded. To forward an IPv4 unicast packet, for instance, the system searches the FIB for the outbound interface and next hop according to the destination IP address of the packet. Finally, the system sends the packets containing information about outbound interfaces and next hops to the traffic management (TM) module.
• Downstream process: Information about packet types that have been identified in the upstream process and about the outbound interfaces is encapsulated through the link layer protocol and the packets are stored in corresponding queues for transmission. If an IPv4 packet whose outbound interface is an Ethernet interface, the system needs to obtain the MAC address of the next hop. Outgoing traffic is then classified according to the QoS configurations on the outbound interfaces. Finally, the system encapsulates the packets with new Layer 2 headers on the outbound interfaces and sends them to the PIC.