|
Feature |
Product |
Release introduced |
|---|---|---|
|
Fabric Extend |
5320 Series |
Fabric Engine 8.6 |
|
5420 Series |
VOSS 8.4 |
|
|
5520 Series |
VOSS 8.2.5 |
|
|
Fabric Extend over IPsec |
5320 Series |
Not Supported |
|
5420 Series |
Not Supported |
|
|
5520 Series |
Not Supported |
|
|
Digital Certificate Authentication for Fabric Extend over IPsec |
5320 Series |
Not Supported |
|
5420 Series |
Not Supported |
|
|
5520 Series |
Not Supported |
|
|
ECMP support for Fabric Extend |
5320 Series |
Fabric Engine 8.6 |
|
5420 Series |
VOSS 8.4 |
|
|
5520 Series |
VOSS 8.2.5 |
|
|
IPsec compression |
5320 Series |
Not Supported |
|
5420 Series |
Not Supported |
|
|
5520 Series |
Not Supported |
|
|
Ability to adjust the maximum segment size (MSS) |
5320 Series |
Fabric Engine 8.6 |
|
5420 Series |
VOSS 8.5 |
|
|
5520 Series |
VOSS 8.5 |
|
|
IS-IS hello padding |
5320 Series |
Fabric Engine 8.6 |
|
5420 Series |
VOSS 8.4.2 |
|
|
5520 Series |
VOSS 8.2.7 |
|
|
IPsec fragmentation before encryption |
5320 Series |
Not Supported |
|
5420 Series |
Not Supported |
|
|
5520 Series |
Not Supported |
|
|
Ability to configure a specific IPsec source IP per tunnel |
5320 Series |
Not Supported |
|
5420 Series |
Not Supported |
|
|
5520 Series |
Not Supported |
Some hardware platforms support Fabric Extend natively. You can use these switches in a main office of a hub and spoke deployment or to connect one Data Center to another Data Center.
Fabric Extend enables Enterprises to extend the Fabric Connect technology over Layer 2 or Layer 3 core networks. The logical IS-IS interface is the mechanism that enables Fabric Extend to connect SPB fabric nodes. Logical IS-IS interfaces create virtual tunnels and encapsulate SPB traffic by adding a VXLAN header to SPB packets.
The following figure illustrates two Fabric Connect “islands” separated by a third-party core IP network. The IP network could be third-party equipment in an enterprise or a service provider‘s infrastructure such as an MPLS VPN service.
The following figure illustrates how Fabric Extend enables you to connect the fabric islands to create ONE Fabric Connect network. This figure shows a Layer 3 core network where Fabric Extend uses IP tunneling by adding a VXLAN header to the SPBM packets. This can be over a third party IPv4 transport network such as MPLS IP-VPN or in a Campus IP backbones.
The following figure shows a Layer 2 core network where Fabric Extend can transport SPBM packets over a Layer 2 MPLS VPLS or PBB E-LINE service by creating layer 3 tunnels over a Layer 2 third party network.
Fabric Connect is an Ethernet-based, industry-standard (IEEE 802.1aq) networking virtualization solution. With Fabric Connect, you can have thousands of virtualized service instances at any point in the network. Other Fabric Connect advantages include rapid time to service, Layer 2 and Layer 3 Unicast and IP Multicast virtualization, and scalable IP multicast. But the most significant advantage of Fabric Connect is that you provision services at the network edge only, not the core.
The Fabric Extend feature enables you to extend the Fabric Connect model over Layer 2 and Layer 3 core networks. The interconnection of Fabric Connect deployments can be over any IP-based network whether it‘s a campus backbone, Data Center, or a MAN/WAN IP MPLS network.