CN103716258A - High-density line card, switching device, cluster system and electric signal type configuration method - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a high-density line card, switching equipment, cluster system and an electrical signal type configuration method, which are applied to the switching equipment and include a control unit for notifying the electrical signal conversion after obtaining the electrical signal type supported by the photoelectric conversion unit Unit; an electrical signal conversion unit, used to convert the electrical signal from the backplane of the switching device into an electrical signal type supported by the photoelectric conversion unit and then send it to the photoelectric conversion unit, or convert the electrical signal from the photoelectric conversion unit into a backplane support The electrical signal type is sent to the backplane; the photoelectric conversion unit is used to convert the electrical signal into an optical signal and send it to the connection unit, or convert the optical signal into an electrical signal and send it to the electrical signal conversion unit; the connection unit is used to convert the signal from other switches The optical signal of the device is sent to the photoelectric conversion unit, or the optical signal from the photoelectric conversion unit is sent to other switching devices. This solution can reduce power consumption and interconnection costs of density line cards.

Description

High-density line card, switching equipment, trunking system and method for configuring electrical signal types

technical field

The invention relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a high-density line card, switching equipment, trunking system and an electrical signal type configuration method.

Background technique

Virtual Switching Unit (VSU) technology is a network system virtualization technology that supports the combination of multiple devices into a single virtual device. In the network architecture shown in Figure 1, the access layer, convergence layer, core Devices at each layer can form a VSU to form an end-to-end VSU networking solution for the entire network. Compared with the traditional networking mode, this networking can simplify the network topology, reduce network management and maintenance costs, shorten application recovery time and service interruption time, and improve network resource utilization.

For the three-layer network model, the core layer is the high-speed backbone of the network, and the amount of data to be forwarded is very large, so the switching equipment at the core layer usually adopts a rack-mounted architecture, as shown in Figure 2. The switching equipment at the core layer includes the engine , the service card and the backplane, the engine and the service card can all be connected to the backplane, and communicate through the data channel on the backplane. The engine is responsible for the control of switching equipment status, routing management, user access management, equipment upgrade and other functions; service cards include line cards and switching matrices, and line cards are used to implement specific services, carrying data forwarding and data fragmentation and other functions, the switch matrix is used for data exchange between each line card, the structure of the line card is shown in Figure 3, including a central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, CPU), a medium access control (Medium Access Control, MAC) chip , physical layer (Physical Layer, PHY) chip and Ethernet port, the bandwidth of the Ethernet port is 10G or 40G.

Currently, switching devices are connected to each other through Ethernet ports on line cards, as shown in Figure 4. When the amount of data forwarded between switching devices is not large, using a few line cards with 10G or 40G Ethernet ports for VSU interconnection can meet the needs of data forwarding, but when the amount of data to be forwarded is very large, use many line cards The 10G or 40G Ethernet port of the VSU is connected to each other, which will directly increase the interconnection cost and power consumption. For example, to achieve 480G forwarding, the uplink backplane of the MAC chip needs to have a bandwidth of 480G, and the downlink panel has a bandwidth of 480G. A total of 960G bandwidth is required, and a MAC chip needs to consume more than 100W of energy; When the Ethernet port of the card is interconnected, an optical module needs to be mated with the Ethernet port, and the cost of the optical module is very high. The market purchase price of a pair of 40G short-distance optical modules is 5,000 yuan. Bandwidth, the cost of the optical module is about 60,000 yuan.

It can be seen that the current structure of the line card leads to very high interconnection costs and power consumption.

Contents of the invention

Embodiments of the present invention provide a high-density line card, switching device, trunking system, and electrical signal type configuration method to solve the problem of very high interconnection costs and power consumption caused by the existing line card structure.

Therefore, an embodiment of the present invention provides a high-density line card, which is applied to a switching device. The high-density line card includes a control unit, an electrical signal conversion unit, a photoelectric conversion unit, and a connection unit, wherein:

The control unit is configured to notify the electrical signal conversion unit after obtaining the electrical signal type supported by the photoelectric conversion unit;

The electrical signal conversion unit is configured to convert the electrical signal from the backplane of the switching device into an electrical signal type supported by the photoelectric conversion unit and send it to the photoelectric conversion unit, or convert the electrical signal from the photoelectric conversion unit Convert the electrical signal into the electrical signal type supported by the backplane and send it to the backplane;

The photoelectric conversion unit is configured to convert the electrical signal from the electrical signal conversion unit into an optical signal and send it to the connection unit, or convert the optical signal from the connection unit into an electrical signal and send it to the electrical signal conversion unit;

The connection unit is used to connect other switching devices through a cable assembly; send the optical signal from the other switching device to the photoelectric conversion unit, or send the optical signal from the photoelectric conversion unit to the other switching device equipment.

Specifically, the control unit is connected to the electrical signal conversion unit through a serial management interface SMI bus, and the control unit is connected to the photoelectric conversion unit through an I2C bus;

The control unit is specifically configured to configure the read electrical signal type in the electrical signal conversion unit through the SMI bus after reading the electrical signal type supported by the photoelectric conversion unit through the I2C bus.

Specifically, the photoelectric conversion unit includes a parallel optical sending device and a parallel optical receiving device, wherein:

The parallel optical sending device is used to convert the electrical signal from the electrical signal converting unit into an optical signal and send it to the connecting unit;

The parallel optical receiving device is used for converting the optical signal from the connection unit into an electrical signal and sending it to the electrical signal conversion unit.

Specifically, the connection unit includes a first ribbon fiber and a multi-fiber jumper MPO male head located at one end of the first ribbon fiber, wherein:

The first ribbon fiber is connected to the photoelectric conversion unit.

Specifically, the cable assembly includes a second ribbon fiber and a multi-fiber jumper MPO female head located at both ends of the second ribbon fiber;

The connection unit further includes an adapter, which is used for locking and connecting the MPO male head with one MPO female head.

A switching device is also provided, including the above-mentioned high-density line card, an engine, a backplane, and a switch matrix, wherein the high-density line card is connected to the engine, the backplane, and the switch matrix respectively.

Specifically, the high-density line card is connected to the backplane through a gigabit management interface.

It also includes a trunking system, including at least two switching devices described above, and two pairs of switching devices are connected through cable assemblies.

Specifically, the cable assembly includes a second ribbon fiber and multi-fiber jumper MPO female connectors located at both ends of the second ribbon fiber.

A high-density line card-based electrical signal type configuration method is also provided, which is applied to the above-mentioned high-density line card, and the method includes:

the control unit determines whether the photoelectric conversion unit is present;

If it is in place, after obtaining the electrical signal type supported by the photoelectric conversion unit, notify the electrical signal conversion unit, and instruct the electrical signal conversion unit to convert the electrical signal from the backplane of the switching device into the photoelectric conversion unit The supported electrical signal types are then sent to the photoelectric conversion unit.

In the high-density line card, switching device, trunking system, and electrical signal type configuration method provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the high-density line card no longer uses a MAC chip, but uses a photoelectric conversion unit, because the power consumption of the photoelectric conversion unit is very high. Low, so that the power consumption of the entire high-density line card can be greatly reduced; and the connection unit in the high-density line card is connected to other switching devices through cable assemblies, and optical modules are no longer used, which can greatly reduce interconnection costs.

Description of drawings

Figure 1 shows the VSU networking scheme in the existing network architecture;

Fig. 2 is the structural diagram of the switching equipment of core layer in the prior art;

FIG. 3 is a structural diagram of a line card in the prior art;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of VSU interconnection between two switching devices in the prior art;

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a high-density line card in an embodiment of the present invention;

6 is a schematic structural diagram of a connecting unit in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a cable assembly in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a switching device in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a switching device in a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a high-density line card in a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

11 is a schematic structural diagram of VSU interconnection between two switching devices in a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 12 is a flowchart of a high-density line card-based electrical signal type configuration method in a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

Aiming at the problem that the interconnection cost and power consumption are very high due to the structure of the existing line card, the embodiment of the present invention provides a high-density line card, which is applied to the switching device, and the structure includes a control unit as shown in FIG. 5 50. An electrical signal conversion unit 51, a photoelectric conversion unit 52 and a connection unit 53, wherein:

The control unit 50 is configured to notify the electrical signal conversion unit 51 after obtaining the electrical signal type supported by the photoelectric conversion unit 52 .

The electrical signal conversion unit 51 is used to convert the electrical signal from the backplane of the switching device into an electrical signal type supported by the photoelectric conversion unit 52 and then send it to the photoelectric conversion unit 52, or convert the electrical signal from the photoelectric conversion unit 52 into The electrical signal type supported by the backplane is sent to the backplane.

The photoelectric conversion unit 52 is configured to convert the electrical signal from the electrical signal conversion unit 51 into an optical signal and send it to the connection unit 53 , or convert the optical signal from the connection unit 53 into an electrical signal and send it to the electrical signal conversion unit 51 .

The connection unit 53 is used to connect other switching devices through a cable assembly; to send optical signals from other switching devices to the photoelectric conversion unit 52, or to send optical signals from the photoelectric conversion unit 52 to other switching devices.

The high-density line card no longer uses a MAC chip, but uses a photoelectric conversion unit. Since the power consumption of the photoelectric conversion unit is very low, the power consumption of the entire high-density line card can be greatly reduced; and in the high-density line card The connection unit connects to other switching devices through cable assemblies, and does not use optical modules, which can greatly reduce the cost of interconnection.

Specifically, the control unit is connected to the electrical signal conversion unit through a serial management interface (Serial Management Interface, SMI) bus, and the control unit is connected to the photoelectric conversion unit through an I2C bus;

The control unit is specifically configured to read the electrical signal type supported by the photoelectric conversion unit through the I2C bus, and configure the read electrical signal type in the electrical signal conversion unit through the SMI bus.

By configuring the electrical signal types supported by the photoelectric conversion unit in the electrical signal conversion unit, the control unit realizes that the electrical signal on the backplane can be sent to the photoelectric conversion unit through the electrical signal conversion unit, and then sent to other switching devices.

Specifically, the photoelectric conversion unit includes a parallel optical sending device and a parallel optical receiving device, wherein:

The parallel optical sending device is used to convert the electrical signal from the electrical signal conversion unit into an optical signal and send it to the connection unit;

The parallel optical receiving device is used to convert the optical signal from the connection unit into an electrical signal and send it to the electrical signal conversion unit.

Specifically, as shown in Figure 6, the connection unit 53 includes a first ribbon fiber 530 and a multi-fiber jumper (Multi-fiber Push On, MPO) male 531 located at one end of the first ribbon fiber, wherein: the first ribbon The optical fiber 530 is connected to the photoelectric conversion unit 52.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 7 , the cable assembly 7 includes a second ribbon fiber 70 and MPO female connectors 71 located at both ends of the second ribbon fiber;

The connection unit also includes an adapter, which is used to securely connect the MPO male head with an MPO female head.

The cable assembly and the connection unit can be firmly connected together through the adapter to ensure normal communication between the switching devices interconnected by the VSU.

Based on the same inventive concept, an embodiment of the present invention also provides a switching device. The structure of the switching device is as shown in FIG. And line card 84, wherein, high-density line card 80 is connected with engine 81, backplane 82 and switch matrix 83 respectively, engine 81, switch matrix 83 and line card 84 can be at least one, only one is shown in Fig. 8 .

Specifically, the high-density line card 80 is connected to the backplane 82 through a gigabit management interface.

Based on the same inventive concept, an embodiment of the present invention also provides a trunking system, including at least two switching devices as shown in FIG.

The present invention will be described in detail below by taking two rack-mounted switching devices as an example to realize interconnection of VSUs with a bandwidth of 480G.

Fig. 9 shows the architecture diagram of the switching device in this embodiment, wherein the engine, line card and switching matrix are consistent with those in Fig. 2, and a high-density line card is added in Fig. Interconnected high-bandwidth cluster systems.

The structure of the high-density line card is shown in Figure 10. Compared with the ordinary line card, the original "MAC chip + PHY chip" is replaced by "PHY chip + parallel optical device + connection unit". The hardware cost of the two is basically the same, but The power consumption of high-density line cards is much lower than that of ordinary line cards. Parallel optical devices are similar to optical modules, and their power consumption is much lower than that of MAC chips. The power consumption of a pair of parallel optical devices is less than 4W. The power consumption of the bandwidth MAC chip usually reaches 100W.

The function of each device in the high-density line card is introduced in detail below, the CPU corresponds to the control unit 50 in Figure 5, the PHY chip corresponds to the electrical signal conversion unit 51 in Figure 5, and the parallel optical device corresponds to the photoelectric conversion in Figure 5 The unit 52, the 24-core high-density ribbon cable assembly and the front panel connector correspond to the connection unit 53 in FIG. 5 .

CPU: used to receive engine management information, configure the PHY chip through SMI, and manage and configure parallel optical devices through the I2C bus. Due to the rich types of electrical signals, there are KR (the interface for backplane interconnection defined in 802.3, including 40GBASE-KR4 and 10GBASE-KR interfaces), SFI (the 10G connection physical media attachment (PhysicalMedium) defined in the IEEE802.3 standard Attachment, PMA) layer and physical medium (Physical Medium Dependent, PMD) layer interface) and so on, it is impossible for every kind of electrical signal to be converged to the parallel optical device to achieve photoelectric conversion, and the CPU needs to obtain the parallel optical device through the I2C bus The electrical signal protocol supported by the device, and then configure the PHY chip to convert the electrical signal of the backplane into an electrical signal suitable for parallel optical devices.

PHY chip: used for electrical signal protocol conversion, since the KR4 signal is defined in the standard as a signal for backplane transmission, it is not suitable for the front panel port. In this example, it is used to transfer the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE) 40GBASE-KR4 (interface for 40G signal backplane interconnection defined by 802.3ap) in the 802.3ap standard is converted to XLPPI in the IEEE802.3ba standard (for 40G connection PMA defined in the IEEE802.3ba standard layer and the interface of the PMD layer) signals.

Parallel optical devices: including parallel optical sending devices and parallel optical receiving devices, is a high-channel density module with a variety of module dimensions, each module can support 10 to 12 channels of 10.3125Gbps Ethernet links, for example For 12-channel embedded MiniPOD parallel optics, the highest rate can support 120Gbps.

24-core high-density ribbon cable assembly and front panel connector: used to mate with parallel optics, the cable assembly has 2 connectors that can be inserted into parallel optics, and is connected to the MPO male through two 12-core flat optical fibers head. Two 12-core flat optical fibers are respectively connected to the parallel optical sending device and the parallel optical receiving device to achieve a rate of 120Gbps. The present invention uses 4 12-core flat optical fibers with 4 pairs of embedded parallel optical devices to achieve a transmission rate of 480Gbps overall; the front panel connector has 4 adapters, and the size of the entire connector is only the size of 3 40G optical modules, but A bandwidth of 480G can be achieved.

The structure of VSU interconnection between two switching devices is shown in Figure 11. The front panel connector locks the MPO female connector in the 24-core high-density cable assembly with the MPO male connector in the front panel connector. Through four 24 Core high-density cable assemblies can realize 480G bandwidth VSU interconnection between two switching devices.

In this application scenario, the power consumption of the high-density line card is less than 1/3 of that of the existing technology; only four 24-core ribbon fibers can realize the interconnection of 480G bandwidth, compared with the existing technology that requires 12 Copper or optical fiber lines, the present invention reduces the difficulty of wiring; does not need to use optical modules, which greatly reduces the cost of interconnection; the interconnection transmits optical signals, and the transmission distance can reach 100m, which is much longer than copper cables, basically meeting the needs of VSU interconnection ;No need to use optical modules, the bandwidth will not be limited by the physical size of optical modules, the interconnection between devices is realized by pairing and interconnecting MPO male and female connectors, achieving 480G bandwidth, and the size is less than 1/4 of 12 40G ports.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the present invention also provides a high-density line card-based electrical signal type configuration method. The flow of the method is shown in Figure 12, and the execution subject is the control unit. The steps are as follows:

S120: Perform initialization after the high-density line card is powered on.

S121: Determine whether the photoelectric conversion unit is in place, if it is in place, execute S122; otherwise, continue to execute S121.

S122: After obtaining the electrical signal type supported by the photoelectric conversion unit, notify the electrical signal conversion unit, and instruct the electrical signal conversion unit to convert the electrical signal from the backplane of the switching device into the electrical signal type supported by the photoelectric conversion unit and send it to the photoelectric conversion unit unit.

The present invention is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It should be understood that each procedure and/or block in the flowchart and/or block diagram, and combinations of procedures and/or blocks in the flowchart and/or block diagram can be realized by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or processor of other programmable data processing equipment to produce a machine such that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing equipment produce a Means for realizing the functions specified in one or more steps of the flowchart and/or one or more blocks of the block diagram.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory capable of directing a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to operate in a specific manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture comprising instruction means, the instructions The device realizes the function specified in one or more procedures of the flowchart and/or one or more blocks of the block diagram.

These computer program instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device, causing a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable device to produce a computer-implemented process, thereby The instructions provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flow chart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

While alternative embodiments of the present invention have been described, additional changes and modifications can be made to those embodiments by those skilled in the art once the basic inventive concept is appreciated. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted to cover alternative embodiments and all changes and modifications that fall within the scope of the present invention.

Apparently, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the embodiments of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present invention. In this way, if the modifications and variations of the embodiments of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and equivalent technologies, the present invention also intends to include these modifications and variations.

Claims (10)

1. A high-density line card, which is applied to switching equipment, is characterized in that the high-density line card includes a control unit, an electrical signal conversion unit, a photoelectric conversion unit and a connection unit, wherein: The control unit is configured to notify the electrical signal conversion unit after obtaining the electrical signal type supported by the photoelectric conversion unit; The electrical signal conversion unit is configured to convert the electrical signal from the backplane of the switching device into an electrical signal type supported by the photoelectric conversion unit and send it to the photoelectric conversion unit, or convert the electrical signal from the photoelectric conversion unit Convert the electrical signal into the electrical signal type supported by the backplane and send it to the backplane; The photoelectric conversion unit is configured to convert the electrical signal from the electrical signal conversion unit into an optical signal and send it to the connection unit, or convert the optical signal from the connection unit into an electrical signal and send it to the electrical signal conversion unit; The connection unit is used to connect other switching devices through a cable assembly; send the optical signal from the other switching device to the photoelectric conversion unit, or send the optical signal from the photoelectric conversion unit to the other switching device equipment. 2. The high-density line card according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is connected to the electrical signal conversion unit through a serial management interface (SMI) bus, and the control unit is connected to the photoelectric conversion unit through an I2C bus unit connection; The control unit is specifically configured to configure the read electrical signal type in the electrical signal conversion unit through the SMI bus after reading the electrical signal type supported by the photoelectric conversion unit through the I2C bus. 3. The high-density line card according to claim 1, wherein the photoelectric conversion unit comprises a parallel optical sending device and a parallel optical receiving device, wherein: The parallel optical sending device is used to convert the electrical signal from the electrical signal conversion unit into an optical signal and send it to the connection unit; The parallel optical receiving device is used for converting the optical signal from the connection unit into an electrical signal and sending it to the electrical signal converting unit. 4. The high-density line card according to claim 1, wherein the connection unit comprises a first ribbon fiber and a multi-fiber jumper MPO male head located at one end of the first ribbon fiber, wherein: The first ribbon fiber is connected to the photoelectric conversion unit. 5. The high-density line card according to claim 4, wherein the cable assembly comprises a second ribbon fiber and a multi-fiber jumper MPO female connector located at both ends of the second ribbon fiber; The connection unit further includes an adapter, which is used for locking and connecting the MPO male head with one MPO female head. 6. A switching device, characterized in that it comprises a high-density line card, an engine, a backplane, and a switch matrix according to any one of claims 1-5, wherein the high-density line card is connected to the engine, the The backplane is connected to the switch matrix. 7. The switching device according to claim 6, wherein the high-density line card is connected to the backplane through a gigabit management interface. 8. A trunking system, characterized in that it comprises at least two switching devices as claimed in claim 6 or 7, and two switching devices are connected by a cable assembly. 9 . The trunking system according to claim 8 , wherein the cable assembly comprises a second ribbon fiber and multi-fiber jumper MPO female connectors located at two ends of the second ribbon fiber. 10. A high-density line card-based electrical signal type configuration method, characterized in that it is applied to the high-density line card according to any one of claims 1-5, the method comprising: the control unit determines whether the photoelectric conversion unit is present; If it is in place, after obtaining the electrical signal type supported by the photoelectric conversion unit, notify the electrical signal conversion unit, and instruct the electrical signal conversion unit to convert the electrical signal from the backplane of the switching device into the photoelectric conversion unit The supported electrical signal types are then sent to the photoelectric conversion unit.

Images