Assisted Replication Benefits
There are a couple benefits of deploying the Assisted Replication feature:
- Reduces capacity edge
nodes/higher capacity replicators—Using Assisted Replication allows for
the edge nodes to be designed with lesser VXLAN replication capabilities, since
they may not need perform broadcast or multicast replication. At the same time,
switches that have exceptional replication capabilities, can be targeted for use
in the role of replicator.
- Leaf-to-spine (or
edge-to-core) bandwidth utilization—In a traditional VXLAN environment
with head-end replication, the leaf/edge node has to replicate a frame to
multiple RTEPs over a finite number of paths/next-hops. The number of paths may
be greater in a pure leaf-spine environment compared to the traditional
edge/core environment, but in either case, the bandwidth consideration from
leaf-to-spine or edge-to-core is typically scaled based on requirements of nodes
that will be attached. The more BC/MC frames that need be replicated from the
node, the more of this precious bandwith it consumes as the number of RTEPs
increases. At the same time, as more and more replication transmits are sent out
a given port, the latency of the latter frames increases. Using Assisted
Replication, if the replicator is placed in a strategic location, the bandwidth
utilization is reduced. For example in a leaf-spine topology where a spine has a
link to every leaf, then the replication is no more than one frame out any link.
In a non leaf-spine topology, the replicator could be located on a device that
has plenty of bandwith and links to the edges of the network.
For information about configuring Assisted Replication, see Configuring Assisted Replication.
