Brocade Provider Edge & Aggregation Products

NetIron MLX Series Routers

Unparalleled IPv4/IPv6/MPLS/Metro Ethernet performance up to 2 Billion pps
Robust Quality of Service for enabling converged multi-play networks
Ideal for a wide range of advanced applications in Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs), Internet edge/aggregation routing, high-security data centers, large enterprise core, and High Performance Computing (HPC)

Overview
Features
Specifications
System Options
Literature

Overview

Network planners today have to ensure that the chosen solution provides the right mix of functionality and high performance while reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO). In addition, a solid, future-proof network design needs to cope with the rapid pace of technology change. The increasing role of the converged network makes high availability and Quality of Service (QoS) crucial to the success of many of today's rollouts. When selecting equipment, planners also need to have peace of mind that added features can be enabled without the need to purchase additional hardware or software.

The NetIron MLX Series of switching routers is designed to meet all these requirements and more. Built with the Brocade state-of-the-art, fifth-generation, network-processor-based architecture and Terabit-scale switch fabrics, the Brocade NetIron MLX Series routers offer network planners a rich set of high-performance IPv4, IPv6, MPLS, and Multi-VRF capabilities as well as advanced Layer 2 switching capabilities. These advanced switching routers offer a wide range of capabilities that address the diverse needs of environments ranging from metro networks, ISPs, data centers, large enterprises, government networks, education/research, and high performance computing (HPC).

The NetIron MLX Series includes the 4-slot NetIron MLX-4, 8-slot NetIron MLX-8, 16-slot NetIron MLX-16, and the 32-slot NetIron MLX-32. The series offers industry-leading port capacity and density with up to 128 10-GbE, 640 1-GbE, 64 OC-192, or 256 OC-48 ports in a single system.

Designed to enable reliable converged infrastructures and support mission-critical applications, the NetIron MLX Series features an advanced N+1 redundant switch fabric architecture for very high availability. The architecture ensures that the system continues to operate at peak performance even in the case of a switch fabric card failure. In the highly unlikely case of additional fabric failures, this advanced architecture allows the system to continue to operate in a graceful degradation mode where the system tunes its performance to the remaining fabric capacity. The redundant fabric architecture is complemented by comprehensive hardware redundancy for the management modules, power supplies, and cooling system. In addition, the Multi-Service IronWare operating system, powering the NetIron MLX Series, offers hitless management failover with BGP and OSPF graceful restart capabilities, as well as hitless (in-service) software upgrades for further enhancing both system availability and overall network availability.

A comprehensive suite of advanced traffic management and QoS functions enables the deployment of triple-play service provider networks and converged enterprise networks supporting voice, video, and data. The NetIron MLX Series offers advanced bandwidth control capabilities with two rate three color traffic policers that provide committed bandwidth to users and/or applications. The NetIron MLX switching routers also offer advanced packet marking, prioritization, queuing, and scheduling with Weighted Random Early Discard (WRED) congestion management for optimal and granular control of bandwidth utilization throughout the network.

Each NetIron MLX switching router has the lowest power consumption and heat dissipation among routers in its class. The leading density of each router in this series and its small form factor yields significant real estate savings for network operators. These unique aspects of the series yield significant savings on power, cooling, and rack space costs, thereby reducing the overall operating expenditures (OpEx).

Features

Service provider grade IPv4/IPv6/MPLS/Multi-VRF enabled metro routers
4-, 8-, 16-, and 32-slot systems for maximum deployment versatility
Up to 2 billion pps routing performance with non-blocking 3.2 Tbps data capacity
Ideal fit for high-density demanding deployments
- 128 10 Gigabit Ethernet / 640 Gigabit Ethernet ports per system
- 64 OC-192 / 256 OC-48 ports per system
Advanced and scalable Metro Ethernet Layer 2 services
- Super Aggregated VLANs (Q-in-Q)
- Comprehensive set of Layer 2 control protocols: MRP, VSRP, RSTP, MSTP
- IEEE 802.1ad Provider Bridges²
MEF 9 and MEF 14 certified for offering Carrier Ethernet services
Industry leading 320 Gbps link aggregation capability for aggregating up to 32 10GbE/OC-192 links in provider backbones
Wire-speed dual stack IPv4/IPv6 routing
Wire-speed Provider Edge (PE) and Provider core (P) Label Switching Routers
Industry-leading performance for MPLS services providing several service choices: IP over MPLS, Virtual Leased Line (VLL), Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS), BGP/MPLS VPN, and Multi-VRF
High performance, robust routing via Brocade Direct Routing for complete, distributed programming of the Forwarding Information Base (FIB) in hardware
Full suite of unicast and multicast IPv4 and IPv6 routing protocols
- Supported IPv4 protocols include RIP, OSPF, BGP-4, IS-IS, PIM-DM, PIM-SM/SSM, IGMP, BGP-MP for multicast, MSDP, and Anycast RP
- Supported IPv6 protocols include RIPng, OSPFv3, IS-IS for IPv6, BGP-MP for IPv6 (BGP4+), PIM-SM/SSM, and MLD
Comprehensive MPLS signaling and path-calculation algorithms for both traffic-engineered and non-traffic-engineered applications
- OSPF-TE, IS-IS-TE, RSVP-TE, CSPF
- MPLS FRR and Hot Standby paths for traffic protection
- LDP
Secure Multi-VRF routing for supporting Virtual Routing applications over non-MPLS backbones
Industry-leading scalability up to
- 2 million IPv4 BGP routes and up to 256 BGP peers
- 512K IPv4 routes in hardware (FIB)
- 112K IPv6 routes in hardware (FIB)
- 400 BGP/MPLS VPNs and up to 256K VPN routes
- 4K VPLS instances and up to 256K VPLS MACs
- 4094 VLANs, and up to 1 million MAC addresses
Superior high availability design
- Redundant management modules
- Redundant switch fabrics
- Redundant power supplies and cooling system
- Hitless Layer 3 and Layer 2 failover with OSPF and BGP graceful restart
- Hitless (in-service) software upgrades leveraging graceful restart
Advanced QoS
- Inbound and outbound two rate three color traffic policers with accounting
- 8 distinct priority levels
- WRED support for congestion management and precedence dropping (tunable via configuration)
- Supports hybrid queue servicing disciplines: mixed Strict Priority and Weighted Fair Queuing
Comprehensive hardware-based security and policies
- Layer 3 and Layer 2 ACLs (both inbound and outbound)
- Granular ACL accounting (both inbound and outbound)
- Hardware-based packet filtering
- Hardware-based policy-based routing (PBR)
- Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding (uRPF)
- Receive ACLs
- Extensive sFlow Layer 2-7 traffic monitoring for IPv4, IPv6, and MPLS services

² Partial support

Specifications

IEEE Compliance

802.3 CSMA/CD Access Method and Physical Layer Specifications
802.3ab 1000BASE-T
802.3ae 10 Gigabit Ethernet
802.3x Flow Control
802.3ad Link Aggregation
802.1Q Virtual Bridged LANs
802.1D MAC Bridges
802.1w Rapid STP
802.1s Multiple Spanning Trees
802.1ad Provider Bridges; partial support: port-based and S-tagged service interface
802.1ag Connectivity Fault Management (CFM)

RFC Compliance - BGPv4

RFC 4271 BGPv4
RFC 1745 OSPF Interactions
RFC 1997 Communities & Attributes
RFC 2439 Route Flap Dampening
RFC 2796 Route Reflection
RFC 1965 BGP4 Confederations
RFC 2842 Capability Advertisement
RFC 2918 Route Refresh Capability
RFC 1269 Managed Objects for BGP
RFC 2385 BGP Session Protection via TCP MD5
RFC 3682 Generalized TTL Security Mechanism, for eBGP Session Protection
RFC 4273 BGP-4 MIB
draft-ietf-idr-restart Graceful Restart Mechanism for BGP

RFC Compliance - OSPF

RFC 2328 OSPF v2
RFC 3101 OSPF NSSA
RFC 1745 OSPF Interactions
RFC 1765 OSPF Database Overflow
RFC 1850 OSPF Traps
RFC 2328 OSPF v2
RFC 1850 OSPF v2 MIB
RFC 2370 OSPF Opaque LSA Option
RFC 3630 TE Extensions to OSPF v2
RFC 3623 Graceful OSPF Restart

RFC Compliance - IS-IS

RFC 1195 Routing in TCP/IP and Dual Environments
RFC 1142 OSI IS-IS Intra-domain Routing Protocol
RFC 2763 Dynamic Host Name Exchange
RFC 2966 Domain-wide Prefix Distribution

RFC Compliance - RIP

RFC 1058 RIP v1
RFC 1723 RIP v2
RFC 1812 RIP Requirements

RFC Compliance - IPv4 Multicast

RFC 1122 Host Extensions
RFC 1112 IGMP
RFC 2236 IGMP v2
RFC 3376 IGMP v3
RFC 3973 PIM-DM
RFC 2362 PIM-SM
RFC 2858 BGP-MP
RFC 3618 MSDP
RFC 3446 Anycast RP

RFC Compliance - General Protocols

RFC 791 IP
RFC 792 ICMP
RFC 793 TCP
RFC 783 TFTP
RFC 826 ARP
RFC 768 UDP
RFC 894 IP over Ethernet
RFC 903 RARP
RFC 906 TFTP Bootstrap
RFC 1027 Proxy ARP
RFC 951 BootP
RFC 1122 Host Extensions for IP Multicasting
RFC 1256 IRDP
RFC 1519 CIDR
RFC 1542 BootP Extensions
RFC 1812 Requirements for IPv4 Routers
RFC 1541 and 1542 DHCP
RFC 2131 BootP/DHCP Helper
RFC 2338 VRRP
RFC 854 TELNET
RFC 1591 DNS (client)

RFC Compliance - QoS

RFC 2475 An Architecture for Differentiated Services
RFC 3246 An Expedited Forwarding PHB
RFC 2597 Assured Forwarding PHB Group
RFC 2698 A Two Rate Three Color Marker

RFC Compliance - Other

RFC 1354 IP Forwarding MIB
RFC 2665 Ethernet Interface MIB
RFC 1757 RMON Groups 1, 2, 3, 9
RFC 2068 HTTP
RFC 2030 SNTP
RFC 2138 RADIUS
RFC 3176 sFlow
RFC 2863 Interfaces Group MIB
Draft-ietf-tcpm-tcpsecure TCP Security
RFC 3074 Ingress Filtering for Multihomed Networks (uRPF)
RFC 2784 Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)
draft-ietf-bfd-base Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)
draft-ietf-bfd-v4v6-1hop BFD for IPv4 and IPv6 (Single Hop); for OSPFv2, OSPFv3, IS-IS

RFC Compliance - IPv6 Core

RFC 2460 IPv6 Specification
RFC 2461 IPv6 Neighbor Discovery
RFC 2462 IPv6 Stateless Address Auto-Configuration
RFC 2463 ICMPv6
RFC 4291 IPv6 Addressing Architecture
RFC 3587 IPv6 Global Unicast Address Format
RFC 2375 IPv6 Multicast Address Assignments
RFC 2464 Transmission of IPv6 over Ethernet Networks
RFC 2711 IPv6 Router Alert Option
RFC 3596 DNS support

RFC Compliance - IPv6 Routing

RFC 2080 RIPng for IPv6
RFC 2740 OSPFv3 for IPv6
draft-ietf-isis-ipv6 Routing IPv6 with IS-IS
RFC 2545 Use of BGP-MP for IPv6

RFC Compliance - IPv6 Multicast

RFC 2710 Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) for IPv6
RFC 3810 Multicast Listener Discovery Version 2 for IPv6
RFC 4604 IGMPv3 & MLDv2 for SSM
draft-ietf-ssm-arch SSM for IP
RFC 2362 PIM-SM
draft-ietf-pim-sm-v2-new PIM-SM Protocol Specification; partial support: SSM mode of operation

RFC Compliance - IPv6 Transitioning

RFC 2893 Transition Mechanisms for IPv6 Hosts and Routers
RFC 3056 Connection of IPv6 Domains via IPv4 Clouds

RFC Compliance - MPLS

RFC 3031 MPLS Architecture
RFC 3032 MPLS Label Stack Encoding
RFC 3036 LDP Specification
RFC 2205 RSVP v1 Functional Specification
RFC 2209 RSVP v1 Message Processing Rules
RFC 3209 RSVP-TE
RFC 3270 MPLS Support of Differentiated Services
RFC 4090 Fast Reroute Extensions to RSVP-TE for LSP Tunnels; partial support: detour style
RFC 3812 MPLS TE MIB

RFC Compliance - L3VPN

RFC 2858 Multiprotocol Extensions for BGP-4
RFC 3107 Carrying Label Information in BGP-4
RFC 4364 BGP/MPLS IP VPNs
draft-ietf-idr-bgp-ext-communities BGP Extended Communities Attribute
RFC 4576 Using LSA Options Bit to Prevent Looping in BGP/MPLS IP VPNs (DN Bit)
RFC 4577 OSPF as the PE/CE Protocol in BGP/MPLS IP VPNs
draft-ietf-idr-route-filter Cooperative Route Filtering Capability for BGP-4
RFC 4382 MPLS/BGP Layer 3 VPN MIB

RFC Compliance - L2VPN and PWE3

draft-ietf-l2vpn-l2-framework Framework for Layer 2 Virtual Private Networks
draft-ietf-l2vpn-requirements Service Requirements for Layer 2 Provider Provisioned Virtual Private Networks
RFC 4762 VPLS Using LDP Signaling
draft-ietf-pwe3-arch PWE3 Architecture
RFC 4447 Pseudowire Setup and Maintenance using LDP
RFC 4448 Encapsulation Methods for Transport of Ethernet over MPLS Networks
draft-ietf-pwe3-pw-tc-mib Definitions for Textual Conventions and OBJECT-IDENTITIES for Pseudo-Wires Management
draft-ietf-pwe3-pw-mib Pseudo Wire (PW) Management Information Base

RFC Compliance - Packet over SONET/SDH

RFC 1661 The Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)
RFC 1662 PPP in HDLC-like Framing
RFC 2615 PPP over SONET/SDH
RFC 1332 Internet Protocol Control Protocol (IPCP)
RFC 1377 The PPP OSI Network Layer Control Protocol (OSINLCP)
RFC 2472 IPv6 over PPP
RFC 3592 SONET/SDH Objects
GR-253-CORE SONET Transport Systems: Common Generic Criteria
G.707/Y.1322 Network Node Interface for SDH

MEF Certification

MEF 9 Certified - Abstract Test Suite for Ethernet Services at the UNI
MEF 14 Certified - Abstract Test Suite for Traffic Management Phase 1

Network Management

IronView Network Manager (INM) web-based graphical user interface
Integrated industry standard Command Line Interface (CLI)
sFlow (RFC 3176)
Telnet
SNMP v1, v2c, v3
SNMP MIB II
RMON

Element Security Options

AAA
RADIUS
Secure Shell (SSH v2)
Secure Copy (SCP v2)
HTTPs
TACACS/TACACS+
Username/Password (Challenge and Response)
Bi-level Access Mode (Standard and EXEC Level)
Protection against Denial of Service attacks, such as TCP SYN or Smurf Attacks

Environmental

Operating Temperature: 0 °C to 40 °C (32 °F to 104 °F)
Relative Humidity: 5% to 90%, @40 °C (104 °F), non-condensing
Operating Altitude: 6,600 ft (2,012 m)
Storage Temperature: -25 °C to 70 °C (-13 °F to 158 °F)
Storage Humidity: 95% maximum relative humidity, non-condensing
Storage Altitude: 15,000 ft (4,500 m) maximum

Safety Agency Approvals

CAN/CSA-C22.2 No. 60950-1-3
UL 60950-1
IEC 60950-1
EN 60950-1 Safety of Information Technology Equipment
EN 60825-1 Safety of Laser Products - Part 1: Equipment Classification, Requirements and User's Guide
EN 60825-2 Safety of Laser Products - Part 2: Safety of Optical Fibre Communication Systems

Electromagnetic Emission

ICES-003 Electromagnetic Emission
FCC Class A
EN 55022/CISPR-22 Class A/VCCI Class A
AS/NZS 55022
EN 61000-3-2 Power Line Harmonics
EN 61000-3-3 Voltage Fluctuation & Flicker
EN 61000-6-3 Emission Standard (Supersedes: EN 50081-1)

Immunity

EN 61000-6-1 Generic Immunity and Susceptibility (Supersedes: EN 50082-1)
EN 55024 Immunity Characteristics ( Supersedes:
- EN 61000-4-2 ESD
- EN 61000-4-3 Radiated, radio frequency, electromagnetic field
- EN 61000-4-4 Electrical fast transient
- EN 61000-4-5 Surge
- EN 61000-4-6 Conducted disturbances induced by radio-frequency fields
- EN 61000-4-8 Power frequency magnetic field
- EN 61000-4-11 Voltage dips and sags)

Telco NEBS/ETSI

Designed to meet the following specifications (formal testing under way):
Telcordia GR-63-CORE NEBS Requirements: Physical Protection
Telcordia GR-1089-CORE EMC and Electrical Safety
Telcordia SR-3580 Level 3
ETSI ETS 300-019 Physical Protection
Part 1-1, Class 1.1, Partly Temperature Controlled Storage Locations
Part 1-2, Class 2.3, Public Transportation
Part 1-3, Class 3.1, Temperature Controlled Locations (Operational)
ETSI ETS 300-386 EMI/EMC

Power and Grounding

ETS 300 132-1 Equipment Requirements for AC Power Equipment Derived from DC Sources
ETS 300 132-2 Equipment Requirements for DC Powered Equipment
ETS 300 253 Facility Requirements

Physical Design and Mounting

19-Inch rack mount supporting racks compliant with
ANSI/EIA-310-D
ETS 300 119
GR-63-CORE Seismic Zone 4
Tabletop

Environmental Regulatory Compliance

EU 2002/95/EC RoHS (with lead exemption)
EU 2002/96/EC WEEE

System Options

Part Number	Description
NI-MLX-4-AC	4-slot NetIron MLX-4 AC system
NI-MLX-8-AC	8-slot NetIron MLX-8 AC system
NI-MLX-16-AC	16-slot NetIron MLX-16 AC system
NI-MLX-32-AC	32-slot NetIron MLX-32 AC system
NI-MLX-4-DC	4-slot NetIron MLX-4 DC system
NI-MLX-8-DC	8-slot NetIron MLX-8 DC system
NI-MLX-16-DC	16-slot NetIron MLX-16 DC system
NI-MLX-32-DC	32-slot NetIron MLX-32 DC system
NI-MLX-MR	NetIron MLX Series system management module, 1 GB SDRAM, dual PCMCIA slots, EIA/TIA-232 and 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports for out-of-band management
NI-MLX-32-MR	NetIron MLX-32 system management module, 1 GB SDRAM, dual PCMCIA slots, EIA/TIA-232 and 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports for out-of-band management
NI-X-SF1	NetIron XMR/MLX 4-slot system switch fabric module
NI-X-SF3	NetIron XMR/MLX 8-/16-slot system switch fabric module
NI-X-32-SF	NetIron XMR/MLX 32-slot system switch fabric module
NI-MLX-10Gx4	NetIron MLX Series 4-port 10-GbE module with IPv4/IPv6/MPLS hardware support - requires XFP optics
NI-MLX-10Gx2	NetIron MLX Series 2-port 10-GbE module with IPv4/IPv6/MPLS hardware support - requires XFP optics
NI-MLX-1Gx20-SFP	NetIron MLX Series 20-port FE/GE (100/1000) module with IPv4/IPv6/MPLS hardware support - requires SFP optics
NI-MLX-1Gx20-GC	NetIron MLX Series 20-port 10/100/1000 copper module with IPv4/IPv6/MPLS hardware support
NI-X-OC192x2	2-port Packet over SONET (SDH) OC-192 (STM-64) interface module
NI-X-OC192x1	1-port Packet over SONET (SDH) OC-192 (STM-64) interface module
NI-X-OC48x8	8-port Packet over SONET (SDH) OC-12/48 (STM-4/16) interface module
NI-X-OC48x4	4-port Packet over SONET (SDH) OC-12/48 (STM-4/16) interface module
NI-X-OC48x2	2-port Packet over SONET (SDH) OC-12/48 (STM-4/16) interface module