An introductory view into Plexxi's Pod Switch Interconnect. The Pod Switch Interconnect delivers the value of application-centric networking in an affordable, fix-configuration pod form factor. By bringing together SDN, photonic switching, and DevOps, Plexxi has delivered a scalable data center networking solution at a cost-effective price.

1. Plexxi PSI (Pod Switch Interconnect)
Form-factor optimized, Photonic Data Center Fabric
October 2013
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013

2. THE PLEXXI SWITCH FABRIC
SDN-based Switching Infrastructure
Plexxi Pod Switch Interconnect (PSI)
• Scalable L1/L2/L3 Ethernet/IP architecture
• Familiar Hub & Spoke physical form-factor
• Flat, scale-out optical architecture
• High-performance at extremely low-cost
• Controller-based with rich APIs
• Turn-key connectivity modules
‒ Optimized for fixed-form-factor “pod”
deployments
‒ Buy modular blocks of network capacity as
you grow your datacenter
• Integration-driven, Application-oriented
Hub & Spoke
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
Low Cost
2
Pod Deployment

3. SOLUTION
THE
AFFINITY
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
CONTROL
3
SWITCH
CONNECT

4. PLEXXI ARCHITECTURE
WORKFLOW CONNECTORS
WORKLOAD CONNECTORS
Affinity
Model
PLEXXI
CONTROL
Network
Topography
Algorithmic Fitting Engine
Analytics
Application Analytics
Network Analytics
Affinity
Plexxi WebGUI
API
PLEXXI
INTERFACE
Plexxi Shell
Topology
Plexxi PSI:
Pod Switch Interconnect
PLEXXI
SWITCH FABRIC
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
Service Assurance
Storage Clusters
Data Services Engine
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5. PLEXXI POD SWITCH INTERCONNECT
HUB & SPOKE TOPOLOGY
PLEXXI
POD SWITCH
INTERCONNECT
FABRIC
PSI
Edge Switches
Block of Servers
Storage
Modularized
Connectivity
Connectivity by
the container
Racks
Network (PSI)
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
5
PSI
Optical Fabric
Optical Fabric
Optical Spine Layer
Edge Switches
Fixed form factor for data center pod deployments
6 Rack
Row
12 Rack
Row
3x12 Rack
Row
432x 10G ports
864x 10G ports
2448x 10G ports

6. PSI
PLEXXI OPTICAL SPINE
Plexxi Pod Switch Interconnect (PSI)
• 100% Passive Optical chassis
Sw1 Sw2
Sw3
Sw4 Sw5
Sw6
Ext1 Ext2
Ext3
East
‒ 12x LightRail™ Pod switch ports
‒ 6x LightRail™ PSI extender ports
• New optical topology
‒ Hub & Spoke cabling topology
‒ Passive bypass within PSI chassis
‒ Inter-switch paths not disrupted by
leaf node maintenance
‒ Online insertion/removal of leaf nodes
‒ Maintains photonic switching
capabilities of traditional Plexxi
fabric solution
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
6
West
Pod Switch Ports
Extender Ports
Internal Photonic Topology
• All passive bypass links now internal to PSI
• No non-local traffic carried through leaf switches
• 4.3Tb/sec optical capacity

7. EXTENDING THE OPTICAL SPINE
Extensible Spine Layer interconnects Pod
Supports extended spine-layer topology
One or more PSI chassis deployed in ring topology
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
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PSI

8. PSI
PLEXXI SWITCH 2SP
Dense 10G Pod Edge Switch
• Dense 10G Access at 3:1 oversubscription
• 72x10GE Access Ports
‒ 16x QSFP (16x40GbE or 64x 10/1GbE)
‒ 8x SFP+ 10/1GbE
2x LightRail™
Plexxi LightRail™
• Extended Capacity LightRail
• Hub & Spoke Cabling
• FlexxPorts*: 4x SFP+
• 2x LightRail Interfaces, each carrying 12x10GbE
‒ 1km FP 1310 Optics
‒ 240Gb/sec Full-Duplex uplink capacity
• Co-controller CPU: Quad-core i5/16 GB DRAM
2 RU Chassis
Max/Typical Power Draw: 400W/250W
* FlexxPorts: allow direct-connect to the LightRail Fabric for fabric extension or non-Ethernet transport
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
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9. PSI
CONNECTING THE LEAF AND SPINE
Plexxi Pod Switch Interconnect
Plexxi Switch 2sp
One Plexxi Pod
= 1x PSI + 6x Leaf Switches
Plexxi PSI
2x LightRail™ cables from each
leaf node to PSI chassis
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
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6x LightRail™
(3x East + 3x West)
Extender Ports
Extender ports between PSI chassis
interconnect remote pod deployments
(max 1km)

10. DEPLOYABLE NETWORK UNITS
PSI
Pre-configured Plexxi Pods available as a single SKU
(6-12 rack row) – 432 10GbE Access Ports
1x Pod
6x Switch 2sp, 1 PSI, all interconnect cabling (20m)
Switch Software License, Control Software
(1-2 12-rack row) – 864 10GbE Access Ports
2x Pods
12x Switch 2sp, 2 PSI, all interconnecting cabling (20m)
Switch Software Licenses, Control Software
(3-6 12-rack connected rows) – 2448 10GbE Access Ports
6x Pods
30x Switch 2sp, 6x Switch 2s, 7x PSI, and all cabling (20m)
Switch Software Licenses, Control Software
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013

11. DEPLOYMENT
PLEXXI Pod Switch Interconnect
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
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12. PSI
DEPLOY ONE POD (SMALL)
6x Switch 2sp Leaf Switches
Single Pod Solution
1x PSI Chassis
PLEXXI CONTROL
Plexxi
Switch 2sp
Plexxi Pod
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
Plexxi PSI
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13. PSI
EXTENDED POD INTERCONNECT
2, 4 or 6 Pod Deployment
via PSI Interconnect
6x Switch 2sp Leaf Switches per PSI chassis
1x PSI Chassis (one per pod)
PLEXXI CONTROL
Plexxi Pod
Plexxi Pod
LightRail™ Pod Extension
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
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14. PSI
OPERATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
Deploying and Maintaining a Plexxi Pod Architecture
• Plexxi Pod represents a single maintenance domain
Plexxi Pod
• All switches maintain fully-meshed optical topology
across LightRail™ and PSI interconnect
PSI
• Zero configuration required for underlying fabric
control
Switch
2sp
Switch
2sp
Switch
2sp
Switch
2sp
Switch
2sp
Switch
2sp
• Single instance of fabric control plane
• Switch maintenance affects only local traffic
• Passive Optical PSI
• Passive PSI requires no configuration
• Self-maintaining optical fabric
‒ Automated topology discovery and sub-second liveness
detection on all fabric paths
‒ Real-time optical monitoring of all photonic paths by leaf
switches
• Single instance of Plexxi Control
‒ One point of administration / API access
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
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15. REDUNDANCY
Multiple Levels of Redundancy within the Plexxi Solution
1
Fabric Redundancy
2
Dual Fabrics
“A” Network
3
Controller Redundancy
Control
PLEXXI
CONTROL
“B” Network
• Highly-meshed, redundant
interconnect based on photonic
fabric
• Support for Dual Pod
Topologies with independent
fabric control planes
• Fabric continues to operate
when disconnected from
controller
• Integrated optical quality
monitoring
• Multiple Pods via single
instance of Plexxi Control
• Support for redundant controller
and graceful switchover
• Fast Local Repair within fabric
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
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16. FAULT TOLERANCE
Designed for Survivability and Continuous Operation
Hierarchical Control Plane
Fast Local Repair
• Switch insert/removal from
PSI doesn’t affect transit
traffic through leaf switches
• Distributed Co-controllers on
each switch operate when
disconnected from controller
‒ Distributed routing and
switching control
• Intelligent fast-reroute by cocontroller allows sub-second
convergence
• Photonic fabric delivers
highly-meshed interconnect
paths for efficient loadbalancing and fast repair
• Controller-based global
optimization and interface
• Controller-based optimization
includes shared-risk group in
failover
• Optical monitoring on all
fabric paths
• Zero-config fabric control
plane operates independently
from controller
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
Resilient Data Plane
16
• All fabric paths tested at subsecond intervals
• Fast local repair works even if
controller is disconnected

17. PSI
YOUR DATA CENTER AT PLEXXI SCALE
Enhanced Pod Interconnect: a new dimension of photonic scale
Multiple LightRail™ Interconnects
• Massive increase in cross-sectional
bandwidth
• Adds capacity for L1 path engineering
• Increase benefit from controller-based
path optimization
Plexxi Switch 2p (New!)
Concentric
LightRail™
Topologies
• 4x LightRail™ interfaces
• Concentric LightRail™ topologies
‒ Wider path optimization
‒ More low-latency bypass capacity
Multi-Degree Pod Interconnect
• Multiple Pods
• Multiple LightRail™
• Single Controller
Switch2p
Switch2p
Switch2p
Switch2p
Switch2p
Switch2p
Switch2p
Switch2p
PLEXXI
CONTROL
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
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18. PSI
PLEXXI SWITCH 2P
Pod Edge/Interconnect Switch
• Interconnect-optimized, 1:1 oversubscription
• 48x10GbE Access Ports
4x LightRail™
‒ 12x QSFP (12x 40GbE or 48x 10/1GbE)
• FlexxPorts*: 4x QSFP and 12x SFP+
• 4x LightRail Interfaces, each carrying 12x10GbE
Plexxi LightRail™
• Extended Capacity LightRail
• Hub & Spoke Cabling
‒ 1 km FP 1310 Optics, 24 fiber MTP cables
• Co-controller CPU : Quad Core i5/16 GB DRAM
• Enables multi-degree Pod interconnect
• Doubles photonic fabric capacity
• Increase cross-sectional bandwidth and
add low-latency or dedicated capacity
2 RU Chassis
Max/Typical Power Draw: 500W/400W
* FlexxPorts: allow direct-connect to the LightRail Fabric
for fabric extension or non-Ethernet transport
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
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19. PLEXXI PSI SCALING
SWITCH 2p /SWITCH 2sp
SWITCH FABRIC
SWITCH FABRIC &
OPTICAL
CAPACITY
OPTICAL FABRIC
• L2/L3 Fabric Capacity: 2.56 Tb/sec
• > 3.2Tb/sec Optical Cross-Connect
• Max Usable Capacity: 1.92Tb/sec
• Switch 2p:
• Packet Lookup rate: Wire-speed
• 4x LightRail™ (480Gb/sec capacity)
• Switch 2sp:
• 2x LightRail™ (240Gb/sec capacity)
LAYER 2 SCALING
• MAC Addresses: 288K
L2 PROTOCOL SUPPORT
L3 PROTOCOL SUPPORT
• IPv4 Static Routes
• LACP
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
• IPv4 Prefixes: 16K
• IGMPv2 Snooping
L2/L3 SUPPORT
LAYER 3 SCALING
• OSPFv2, BGP, PIMv2
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20. SUMMARY
PLEXXI Pod Switch Interconnect
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
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21. SUMMARY
Plexxi Pod Architecture
Hub & Spoke
Low Cost
New Hardware:
Pod Deployment
Plexxi Switch 2sp
No Compromise:
All the Plexxiness
Plexxi PSI
Plexxi Switch 2p
New Hardware:
Photonic Scale
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013
Pod Deployment
Additional LightRail™ Capacity
AFFINITY
21
CONTROL
SWITCH
CONNECT

22. THANK YOU
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013

23. THANK YOU
© 2013 Plexxi, Inc. | Proprietary & Confidential | 11/3/2013