#whiteboxswitches

[asterfusion]

Alternative to Infiniband used in ChatGPT: Asterfusion Ultra-Low-Latency Switches

In 2019, Microsoft pledged to invest a whopping $1 billion in OpenAI and committed to constructing an enormous supercomputer for the cutting-edge AI startup.

AI computing cluster networks on a vast scale, such as ChatGPT, often involve thousands of GPU cards. As AI large-scale model training has inherent requirements, there’s minimal room for optimizing costs on the computing power side. 

Not long ago, Microsoft’s Vice President of Cloud Computing and AI, Scott Guthrie, revealed that the company dedicated hundreds of millions of dollars to this ambitious project which combined the power of tens of thousands of Nvidia A100 GPUs with the Azure cloud computing platform.

However, if an alternative solution with comparable performance to InfiniBand can be found for the networking aspect—thus reducing initial investments and operational costs—it might be very worth considering.

Asterfusion Neworks could be your quality choice of ultra-low-latency switches. Proven nearly half ExPo but 90%+ performance compared to InfiniBand switches.

Check below link for details & a comprehensive test results between Cisco CX532P-N & InfiniBand switches:

Asterfusion Networks is the leading provider of open networking infrastructure solutions. We provide an open, disaggregated, and highly programmable network fabric for next generation data centers and campus with white-box switching. 

[asterfusion]

Asterfusion Officially Launch Open-Source Campus Switches Supporting CISCO-style CLI

Asterfusion has announced the official launch of full series of access& aggregation network switch for new generation cloud campus network in 2022 Q4 embracing the concept of openness, simplification and energy saving. All series preloaded with the self-developed AsterNOS network operating system based on  SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud), which also support CISCO-style command line, aiming at facilitate the transformation of open campus network services.

For more, please visit

Or contact:

Email: zhangyunyun@cloudswit.ch

CP/ Whatsapp: +86 18916960202

[asterfusion]

Asterfuison's Contribution to White Box Switch, Bare Metal Switch, Brite Box Switch

The white box switch is commodity-based bare-metal switches loaded a third party ‘s network operating system or just a pure bare metal switch but without a well-known brand name . Brite box switch is a kind of whitebox switch but own its brand name. Bare metal switches are come from original design manufacturers (ODMs) which do not have a NOS pre-loaded.

An open network means that the network switch hardware and software are separated and disaggregated from each other. With the development of open networks, many enterprise users have realized its benefits of flexibility and cost-effectiveness. However, when engineers decide to build their own open network, they may be faced with the choice of white box switch, britebox switch, bare metal switch. Both types of open-source switches can be used in the software-defined network environment of data center scenarios.

Here we will present the difference between them , so that you can make good choice .

What is White box switch

The white box switch ( also named white label switch)is commodity-based bare-metal switches loaded a third party's network operating system but without a well-known brand name. It allows users to purchase hardware from hardware vendors, and then select their preferred network operating system (NOS) from open source software vendors or maybe a traditional vendor,like Culmulus or PicOS, SONiC, Juniper,etc. In all,white box switches are much cheaper than traditional switch which makes them an attractive alternative to brand switches.

What is Brite box switch

Brite box switch( also named branded whitebox switch) is a kind of whitebox switch but own its brand name.(For example,DEll and HP) In fact, we can take brite box switch as the middle ground between a traditional switch and white box switch. Usually, brite box switches are pre-loaded with a operating system which means brite box switch enabling simple, plug-and-play deployments ,can directly use. At the meantime, professional technical service from the suppliers is more convenient since it's a one-stop solution. As for the costs, it's more expensive than white box switch but much cheaper than the traditional switch.

What is bare metal switch?

Bare metal switches are come from original design manufacturers (ODMs) which do not have a NOS pre-loaded. usually. ODMs' hardware warranty is basic 2-3 years because their customers have to purchase separately a third-party network operating system (NOS) — like Pica8, Cumulus Linux OS,IP infusion,etc. But nowadays, some manufacturers are self- developing their own NOS, for example, Asterfusion provides a one -stop open networking solution that self-produces whitebox hardware and open source SONiC NOS.

A table comparison between White box switch & Britebox switch & Bare metal switch

The following table lists the options available to you. Users need to understand the differences so that they can make a right decision about which type of switch is best for their network infrastructure.

Who is Asterfusion and What we can do?

Asterfusion data technologies is the leading provider of open networking infrastructure solutions. We provide a disaggregated and highly programmable open network fabric for next generation data centers, enterprise and service providers with full stack open architecture hardware and open-source software.

Asterfusion delivers one-stop open networking solution for 10G/25G/100G/400G whitebox switches based on Innovium Teralynx, Intel tofino and Marvel with SONIC based operating system for next generation data centers, campus and service providers. 

We provide innovium cloud fabric switch, barefoot tofino P4 programmable switch

Offering SONiC based enterprise NOS distribution –AsterNOS with feature rich enhancement.

Of course, the Software Defined Network (SDN) market nowadays is a fast growing, there are increasingly distributors, and systems integrator are seizing this opportunity to join in our open networking family,thus,we also provide OEM white box switches for our partners.

Conclusion

Choosing which type switch, enterprise users should according to their own conditions to make the right decision. But remember Asterfusion can satisfied your needs both for brite box switch and white box switch.

For more Asterfusion white box switches information, please contact: zhangyunyun@cloudswit.ch or CP/ Whatsapp: +86 18916960201

[asterfusion]

How to choose 48×25G ports with 100G uplinks switches between P4 Bare Metal Switch & SONiC Innovium low latency switch?

There are many choices for 48 ports 25G/10G with 100G uplinks for Leaf/TOR switches on the market now.The choice such as brite box switch preloaded with open source software like OcNOS, PicOS, SONIC, etc.and the P4 bare metal switch without software.

But, what is the difference and which to choose?

Here is Asterfusion’s 2 types CX308P-48Y-N / X312P-48Y-T switch as an example, to make a comparison.

Option A: CX-308P-48Y-N preloaded SONiC Enterprise Distribution based on Innovium Teralynx

The Asterfusion CX308-48Y- N is a 48 ports 25GbE switch with 8 ports 100G uplinks which suited for data center top-of-rack switch, enterprise and cloud service providers network deployments, where line-rate L2/ L3 up to 2.0 Tbps switching performance of Innovium Teralynx is paired with ultra low-latency in a compact 1RU form factor .It is well suited for cloud,NVME, AI and HPC latency-sensitive applications.

Built on the deployment-proven Innovium Teralynx switching ASIC, this open network switch preloaded with “AsterNOS” which is an enterprise NOS distribution of open source SONiC with feature rich enhancement and high quality assurance. AsterNOS packed with software features that support complete Layer 3 IPv4 and IPv6 routing protocol.

Besides,it supports VXLAN, EVPN for virtual network expansion.Advancing functions in data center such as DCB、ECN、 RoCEV2, DCTCP、DCQCN is also provided to deliver low-latency, zero packet loss, non-blocking lossless Ethernet. Furthermore, supporting features like INT ,BFD mechanisms to ensure normal operation when the network bears abundant services and heavy traffic.

Option B: P4 programmable Bare Metal Switch:  X312P-48Y-T

The Asterfusion X312P-48Y-T is an Intel tofino P4 programmable bare metal switch with 48x25G/10G (SPF28) + 2x25G/10G/1G (SFP28) + 12x100G (QSFP28)interfaces ,Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding up to 3.3 Tbps.

It is a unique combination of a multi-core X86-based control/management plane, an Intel Tofino programmable switching chip based data forwarding plane and 2 optional high-performance Marvell OcteonTX DPU based modules which can provide extra L4 -L7 in-depth data processing capability. 

Software for Tofino P4 programmable Bare Metal Switch

Debian based environment for development quick start ;

BSP patches of SONiC community version

SONiC based commercial distribution-AsterNOS

Community version of SONiC and Stratum can be installed with the pre-loaded white box install environment ONIE.

Deployment scenarios for Tofino P4 programmable Switch

After installing software,  X312P-48Y-T can be deployed as a top-of-rack (ToR) switch as well as smart gateway such as traffic management, load balance and security processing because its ASIC level programmability enables the switch to deal with flexible network application scenarios.

P4 programmable Bare Metal One or SONiC Innovium One?

Option A have installed SONiC software, which is suitable for users who want simple, plug-and-play deployments and turnkey solution. CX-308P-48Y-N not only can take the advantage of “AsterNOS” with rich and advancing functions support ,but also benefits from its Innovium Teralynx ASIC has industry leading low latency which well suited for cloud,NVME, AI and HPC latency-sensitive applications.

Features Comparison of AsterNOS &SONiC community

As for option B,suits for the customers who has the in-house capabilities and technical expertise to develop the application on software and great needs for data plane programmability.

There is a highlight of its data plane extension solution: when employed with more complex applications, such as those which need deep buffer, stateful processing, or L7 processing, the pluggable 2 DPU modules can be chosen to provide high performance software data processing, where the DPDK and VPP framework can be used to provide developers a quick start development environment in a similar way to the Intel X86.

If users want to develop applications on switch,we will offer patch for BSP of platform for the SDE;or user can use SONiC from community and we will offer patches to support hardware;we can even help users to combine P4 and SONiC together to reduce their time-to-market. Of course, our AsterNOS operating system is an ideal choice as well.

Intel tofino P4 programmable switch enjoys great popularity for academia and research program nowadays.

In addition, price is also an important factor.

CX-308P-48Y-N installed SONiC enterprise distribution is more expensive here.

X312P-48Y -T here is slightly cheaper since it plugs 2 extra DPU modules on switch board for data plane extension .

25G/10G+100G/40G mixed ports for Leaf/TOR switches is the common solution for data centers’increasing network demands now. To satisfy different customers’requirements, Asterfusion has released two types switches CX308P-48Y-N / X312P-48Y-T , providing an open choice for users.

Conclusion

CX308P-48Y-N installed SONiC software which can use directly,with its Innovium Teralynx ASIC can meet latency-sensitive industry’s needs.

X312P-48Y-T is a P4 bare metal switch suits for the customers who have the in-house capabilities and technical expertise to develop the application on software.

For more details, please contact: zhangyunyun@cloudswit.ch or CP/ Whatsapp: +86 18916960201