Barefoot
Networks, a provider of high-performance and fully programmable
networking solutions, today announced several innovative new technical
capabilities that it will demonstrate at Cisco
Live in San Diego, June 9-13. These demonstrations highlight the
benefits of deploying Barefoot
Tofino-powered Cisco
Nexus switches along with Barefoot
Deep Insight for high-performance P4-programmable switching and
routing with real-time network monitoring and visibility.
The rise of new applications in modern data center networks brings
requirements for granular visibility, performance monitoring and control
for the east-to-west traffic and flows generated by distributed
workloads. Barefoot has leveraged Slack,
a cloud-based collaboration tool, to provide real-time updates and
alarms to help operators detect and remedy problems in their networks in
a timely fashion.
Barefoot will also showcase how organizations can leverage
programmability in a standard switching platform, enabling them to
customize some features while still enjoying support and services of the
Cisco platforms. The P4 data-plane is opened up to users using Cisco’s
Data Plane Incremental Programming Environment (daPIPE).
The following demonstrations will be showcased at Cisco Live:
Location: Barefoot – Booth 3319
Demo Name: Deep
Insight Network Analytics and Event-Based Telemetry on a Cisco Nexus
34180YC and Cisco Nexus 3464C Platforms With SPRINT Enabled Fabric
Description: In this demonstration Barefoot will showcase a
leaf/spine data-center topology that uses Nexus 34180YC and Nexus 3464C
series of switches based on the P4-programmable Barefoot Tofino
application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and the industry standard
NX-OS. Barefoot Deep Insight, which is fully integrated with the Cisco
programmable fabric, will be used to continuously monitor the network
and the virtualized applications to pinpoint, correlate and analyze path
and latency, congestion and drop information. A new Deep Insight Slack
integration allows network operators to continuously monitor the network
infrastructure, receiving real-time alarm notifications without having
to use the Deep Insight user interface, showcasing the extensibility and
ease of integration with 3rd party industry standard management tools.
Location: Barefoot – Booth 3319
Demo Name: daPIPE: A
Data Plane Incremental Programming Environment Use-Cases
Description: In this demonstration, the programmability of the
Barefoot’s Tofino P4 data-plane is opened up to end-users that wish to
add incremental and specialized features to standard switch
functionality. The demo walks through daPIPE, a Data Plane
Incremental Programming Environment, which supports a developer,
here called incremental programmer, in adding data plane features
to a Tofino-based Nexus switch running a pre-existing data plane program
controlled by the Cisco NX-OS. This demo shows how daPIPE is used to add
the capability of switching media flows based on the RTP timestamp, as
detailed in the well-known use case published by Fox Advanced Technology
on Github.
Barefoot demonstrates how daPIPE guides the incremental programmers and
streamlines their work, to the point that they do not even need to have
access to the Nexus 3400 P4 program. This new DevOps approach to
networking enables organizations to future proof their network using an
OEM platform, and eliminates the risks and complexity of supporting
classic whitebox solutions.
Location: SDCC – Upper Level, Room 23C
Breakout Session: BRKDCN-2694
– Your data plane does not need to be carved in stone any more: P4 and
programmable data planes
Date and Time: June 12, 8:00 –
10:00 AM
Description: Switches and routers rely on application specific
integrated circuits (ASICs) to achieve the required scale and
performance. Traditionally, this has meant that data plane features are
“carved in stone” (i.e. silicon), literally. However, a new generation
of programmable chips has radically changed this. Modifying the data
plane, to add new features or fix a bug, no longer requires the time and
cost of spinning a new ASIC—it is not cost efficient nor is it the
exclusive prerogative of vendors that have the engineering skills and
process to do so. This technical session offers an overview of the most
common approaches and tools to data plane programmability (e.g., the P4
language, programmable switch architectures) while exploring the
benefits it can bring to Cisco customers by looking into how different
players, such as network equipment vendors, end customers, or even third
parties, can leverage it and present representative use cases.
In addition to the planned booth demos, Barefoot will also showcase
other advanced switching and routing applications that implement traffic
engineering and realize end-to-end policy in the network.
To meet with Barefoot at Cisco Live, please contact sales@barefootnetworks.com.
About Barefoot Networks
Barefoot Networks launched in 2016 after two years of developing
technology that built switch silicon with a forwarding plane that is
defined in software while not compromising on performance. Barefoot
empowers network owners and their infrastructure partners to design,
optimize, and innovate to meet their specific requirements and gain
competitive advantage. In combining the P4 programming language with
fast programmable switches, Barefoot has also created an ecosystem for
compilers, tools, and P4 programs to make P4 accessible to anybody.
Backed by Google Inc., Goldman Sachs Principal Strategic Investments,
Alibaba, Tencent, and by premier venture capital firms Sequoia Capital,
Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Andreessen Horowitz, Barefoot Networks
is headquartered in Silicon Valley. For more information, visit https://barefootnetworks.com/.
Follow us on Twitter: @barefootnetwork.
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Barefoot Networks, the Foot Logo, Tofino, Deep Insight, P4 Studio,
and P4 insight are trademarks of Barefoot Networks
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