Centec enhances 10 GBE whitebox switch solution with support for Microsoft SONiC

Centec Networks of Suzhou, China, a supplier of IP/Ethernet switching silicon and whitebox solutions for SDN, announced it has extended the open-networking operating system options for its 10 Gigabit Ethernet whitebox switch solution via support for Microsoft's Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC) collection of open-sourced software networking components.

The latest integration is based on the Open Compute Project (OCP) Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI), which is designed to allow network infrastructure providers to select the best combination of hardware and software for their specific requirements.

The first product to be introduced incorporating SONiC, which was launched in 2016, with Centec's switching silicon is the ExSwitch6400 series whitebox solution from ODM partner EmbedWay. The platform features Centec's Golden Gate CTC8096 switch chip and utilises SONiC to enable network operators to share the software stack across hardware from multiple switch vendors.

Centec's ExSwitch6400 series is a typical top of rack (ToR) switch that uses its Golden Gate switch chip and supports up to 48 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet downlinks with 40 Gigabit Ethernet and native 100 Gigabit Ethernet (4 x 25 Gbit/s) uplink interfaces. The solution offers support for OCP hardware design guidelines, including Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) to allow applications with ODM and other bare metal switches.

The Golden Gate silicon is designed to enable low latency and power performance for the ExSwitch6400 whitebox solution, and the switch can be optionally extended with an Intel CPU card for applications such as network functions virtualisation (NFV), hyper-convergence and security appliance applications.

Centec announced in November 2016 that it had partnered with EmbedWay, a provider of intelligent infrastructure products and solutions, to introduce the ExSwitch6400 series 10 Gigabit Ethernet SDN whitebox solution, 10/40 Gigabit Ethernet open-networking platform offering native 100 Gigabit Ethernet (4 x 25 Gbit/s SerDes) uplinks.