Broadcom's Latest StrataXGS III Targets Carrier Ethernet Routers

Broadcom announced the second product family in its line of StrataXGS III switch silicon. The new 600 Series of switches, which is designed specifically for carrier applications, includes 3 new devices: the BCM56600, BCM56601 and BCM56602. Each device provides both Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces and integrates 12 Gbps "HiGig" SerDes (serializer/deserializer) technology for resilient scaling of StrataXGS devices across backplanes in modular systems.


Each of the chips supports IPv6 routing, MPLS, service provider bridging, stacked Layer 2 services, protocol tunneling, extensive Layer 2 and Layer 3 IPv6 tunneling, efficient multicast, and point-to-multi point virtual private LAN services (VPLS). Also integrated in the 600 Series are comprehensive traffic management capabilities that enable the deployment of carrier-class service level agreements (SLA) to hundreds of thousands of subscribers.


Broadcom said the scalability of its design enables carriers to offer high throughput flows across multiple switch fabrics with automatic protection switching.


Broadcom's 600 Series also provides scalable, wire-speed packet buffering across all packet sizes -- a feature that is necessary to prevent data loss which can impact the user experience. IPTV, a next-generation billable service that carriers are planning to deploy with the 600 Series, requires this level of deep packet buffering.


The devices are currently sampling to Broadcom's early access customers.
http://www.broadcom.com