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MPLS in switch?

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 1:52 pm
by rebelwireless
Chris, any plans to do MPLS in the tower/wisp switch?

Re: MPLS in switch?

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 1:55 pm
by rebelwireless
or OSPF....

Re: MPLS in switch?

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 2:05 pm
by sirhc
OSPF is a Layer 4 Routing protocol, this switch is a Layer 2 and does not have a processor powerful enough to do much of any layer 3 routing let alone Layer 4.

Could we make it do it yes, would it be useful no.

To do a Layer 4 you want to start with a Layer 3 switch that is capable of several thousand static routes then you want to chose a core that also has a multi gig bus to an external processor that you would add to the reference design then you could load up something like VyOS on the external multi core processor with about 4 to 8 gigs of ram incase you also want to do OSPF world routes which would be in charge of the convergence to update the static route table as needed.

Do we have anything like this planned for the "near" future no, can be build something like this - OF COURSE

Re: MPLS in switch?

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:56 pm
by rebelwireless
I wasn't aware of the specifics of the platform, I thought I saw on the site that MPLS and OSPF were supported but maybe that was on a different SoC

oh, and VyOS doesn't do MPLS anyway.

The issue I'm worried about is not having an inexpensive platform that can handle the new high speed radios efficiently.

It kind of sucks to have a router that basically only needs 1 port (maybe) because all your radios are powered from the switch. I do this now with rb850Gx2 units which were the smallest decent router 'tik has.

The problem is that 1GigE just isn't enough because it's effectively 1/2 duplex when the backhaul and the radios are on the switch and the router is only connected via 1GigE. Obviously, plug a second 1GigE into the switch to handle this, but now you are burning up 2 ports for the router.

I guess I was kind of pipe dreaming that the platform might replicate a cisco metro switch but add the multi-voltage PoE stuff too.

Re: MPLS in switch?

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 5:30 pm
by sirhc
This is why I create a LAG between my router and my switch.


Read this post viewtopic.php?f=30&t=452

You can create a LAG between your Tik Router and our Switch. This is also good as it will spread out pause frames generated by the AP's (and there will be) across the multiple interfaces. If you have a 3 port LAG between your router and our switch and one of the AP's generates a Pause Frame it will not pause the entire LAG (all 3 ports) just the port that the particular AP is using at that time.

Re: MPLS in switch?

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 5:53 pm
by rebelwireless
sirhc wrote:You can create a LAG between your Tik Router and our Switch. This is also good as it will spread out pause frames generated by the AP's (and there will be) across the multiple interfaces. If you have a 3 port LAG between your router and our switch and one of the AP's generates a Pause Frame it will not pause the entire LAG (all 3 ports) just the port that the particular AP is using at that time.


may I ask why a 3 port LAG? Is that just for throughput in your example? I'm missing where a 3 port is better than a 2 port except just for throughput...

Why put the router in the LAG anyway? The backhaul is <=1G and so the upstreams can't exceed that....

Re: MPLS in switch?

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 6:00 pm
by sirhc
I picked 3 as an arbitrary number, do 2, do 4, the more the better as to spread those pause frames out. Depends on how many extra ports you have to spare.

Please read the post I give above and in the post it explains what I do.

But basically I have my Back hauls as mid-spans through the switch into the router ports then a LAG from the router to the switch for all the local tower radios like AP's and private little PTP NanoBridge links for the sole purpose of splitting up all those nasty pause frames across multiple interfaces so as to lessen the impact of pause frames.

Re: MPLS in switch?

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 6:51 pm
by rebelwireless
Ah, I see. I didn't know if you came up with 3 for a particular reason :)

So, I guess I didn't see it from your post, but I assume you are exposing these VLANs in the route in a 'router on a stick' configuration yes?

Re: MPLS in switch?

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 6:58 pm
by sirhc
If your asking if the VLANS are only defined on the switch and router yes.

From each router to the the next router at the next tower there is no VLANs, using OSPF

Re: MPLS in switch?

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 7:50 pm
by rebelwireless
yes, that's what I mean. using VLANs to expose each switch port as if were a physical port. This is what I do as well, but unfortunately I bought TSP8 :/ Your gear is nicer lol.

may I ask, what device do you use for your router?