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How To Build a 100,000-Port Ethernet Switch
BobB-nw writes "University of California at San Diego researchers Tuesday are presenting a paper (PDF) describing software that they say could make data center networks massively scalable. The researchers say their PortLand software will enable Layer 2 data center network fabrics scalable to 100,000 ports and beyond; they have a prototype running at the school's Department of Computer Science and Engineering's Jacobs School of Engineering. 'With PortLand, we came up with a set of algorithms and protocols that combine the best of layer 2 and layer 3 network fabrics,' said Amin Vahdat, a computer science professor at UC San Diego. 'Today, the largest data centers contain over 100,000 servers. Ideally, we would like to have the flexibility to run any application on any server while minimizing the amount of required network configuration and state... We are working toward a network that administrators can think of as one massive 100,000-port switch seamlessly serving over one million virtual endpoints.'"
It's still ethernet.
Dude, mA, kA and kW, not ma, Ka and Kw. Besides, nobody drives front panel LEDs with 20mA unless they're trying to blind somebody.
I think you kinda missed his point that the Networks wouldn't be so hard to admin if the corps didn't try to save a buck by lowballing and ending up with topologies that looked like they were designed by drunken gibbons. Here, let me illustrate with a true story-
So I'm working a nice little temp job, putting in a bunch of new boxes on this little insurance company when I break for lunch I run into one of my old friends at this little outdoor BBQ joint. When I tell him how easy my job is going he says "you gotta come back with me to this law firm I'm having to rebuild. You will NOT fucking believe it!" so intrigued I follow him back. On his desk are some machines, which he asked me "notice anything funny about them?" so I move the side panels so I can see and it instantly hits me that these are ALL homemade gamers rigs. He says "Yep, not a single fucking driver alike. Fun huh? And good luck with parts! But that ain't the worst part. Check this out" so he opens up the "network room" and there is literally a MOUND of Dlink and other cheap ass home routers piled up a good 4-6 feet high. I said "WTF is this?" To which he replied "This is what a dumbass who had been their "network admin" thought a network should look like. Not only is nothing labeled in this just giant fucking mess, but there are no less than SIX different ISP home plans running this shit. Fun huh?"
So while I'm sure he made out like a bandit I wouldn't have taken that job on a bet. I would have had nightmare for months trying to deal with that clusterfuck. All because some bean counter hired the first schmuck that walked through the door that could halfway talk a good game and was willing to work for the peanuts they were offering. So yeah, a network set up by someone with a brain that knows about network topologies isn't really that hard to maintain or add nodes to. But instead you get some paper tiger that can bullshit HR and makes a truly gigantic clusterfuck out of the thing and then it takes 3 forevers to get it straightened out. I don't even want to picture what kind of giant messes can be cooked up with this tech if you can just throw anything together and get it to function thanks to this "virtual mac" idea. Because when the thing finally breaks down like my buddy you might be really scared to open up that "network" door.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
So true. We installed an 8 port IP-KVM switch in a rack recently, and the on light was _bright_ blue, to the point that 20m away it felt like it was boring a hole in my head. I cut some paper into ~1cm square pieces and taped a stack of 3 over it, and it still looked excessively bright. I don't know what the designers were thinking.
They're basically NATting the layer two protocols. Combined with a super spanning tree for the natted addresses they're practically boosting layer two into layer three.
Before I read the paper I was thinking that it would be easier to just run all your services NATted at layer three, even using something like PPPoE (which is how cable networks solve the same basic problem, with something like half a million end-points on the same subnet). I guess it's more efficient to work with the simpler layer two protocols instead.
That sounds like a law office I spec'd a job for. The law office manager knew me from her previous place where I was the "IT" guy. So this law office is having ALL sorts of network, computer and server problems, and asks me for a bid to fix it.
I scope the joint, prepare a bid, and I figure it is (using numbers from memory) it was $25,000 for everything installed setup and running: new HW, Server, computers and wiring (small office). EVERYTHING was BRAND NEW.
Their existing guy (I won't even call him IT) under bid me by $10K. They asked me to requote, and I told them no thanks. Obviously I didn't get the job.
Well, a few months later they called me back to try to fix what was done by this other guy. I look, and his wiring was flat phone cable (cat 2???) stapled to the wall in pretty "rows". Recycled home grown computers and I didn't even bother to look at the "server". I was too afraid.
I said to the Manager, "Network is flakey and nothing works right, huh?". Anyway, they ask me to requote them, and I hand them a copy of my original quote for $25,0000 and say "here".
About this time, I notice all the file cabinets are covered in blue tarps, and see the roof is leaking from the rain. The office manager tells me that they do this every winter when it rains. I ask why they don't get it fixed.
"Because when it is raining, they can't fix it, and when it isn't raining, it isn't a problem".
The funny thing is, they spent the $15K of the original quote the guy quoted, and another $20K in service fees to the same guy trying to fix the new system he just put in ... in A FEW MONTHS!!!
I came to the conclusion that many lawyers aren't that bright. They pinch pennies while pissing away C notes.
I have no idea if that law firm's network ever ran right. The office manager quit shortly afterwards.
SO, it doesn't surprise me that what you saw was in a law office.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Take great care not to use any MAC addresses that are already in use. One would probably need to purchase/register entire blocks of MAC addresses just as a manufacturer of network adapters must do. Or...
Or simply use the private/local range of MAC addresses (02:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx) (The MAC address equivalent of ,say, 10/8)?
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