CACHEdirector

Alteon Networks' CACHEdirector offers a low-price entry point into Layer 4+ switching for users who require Web cache redirection or other forms of application redirection combined with high performance Ethernet switching. Built on an innovative distributed processing architecture with two powerful RISC processors on each of its eight 10/100 Mbps ports, the CACHEdirector switches sessions at blazing speeds - up to 200,000 sessions can be load-balanced across multiple caches in a second.

Policy-Based Application Redirection

Policy-based redirection and load balancing allows network managers to use powerful filtering rules to intercept traffic for any device and redirect it to a group of the same type of devices. Up to 224 filters can be configured based on source and destination IP addresses, protocols and Layer 4 source and destination port numbers. Any or all filters can be applied dynamically to each switch port to forward, drop or redirect packets.

For the first time, users can add the benefits of scaling and resiliency to inline packet processing devices. For instance, applications redirection enables the use of transparent caches to reduce Internet access response time and WAN bandwidth consumption without placing caches in the data path.

Simple, Effective Load Balancing Algorithms

When multiple caches are employed, the CACHEdirector transparently distributes application traffic across them, allowing users to scale cache capacity according to traffic demand, reducing startup equipment costs while maintaining fast response times as usage grows. System administrators can choose from a variety of load balancing methods including round-robin, least connections, minimum misses or hashing.

FEATURES

Eight speed-selectable 10/100 Mbps Ethernet portsy
Transparent redirection of any traffic type to up to 64 caches which can be located anywhere
Up to 224 packet filtering rules per switch for flexibility and control of all IP traffic
Filtering actions include allow, deny and redirect
Full network address translation enables multi-site traffic redirection across routed networks
Intelligent health checks ensure cache, application and content availability
Application redirection load balancing heuristics: round-robin, least-connections, hashing and minimum misses with maximum connection threshold and weighted bias per cache
Hot-standby configuration with in-band keep-alives and configuration updates
Full-mesh topologies with no single point of failure
Integrated high-performance L2 switching, 16 VLANs per port, Jumbo Frames, 802.1d Spanning Tree
Web-based user interface, command line interface and Alteon Networks' SNMP MIB support for configuration and monitoring

Caches can be assigned maximum connection thresholds to ensure they won't be overloaded. If the round-robin or least connections algorithm is chosen, caches may also be assigned a weighting factor so more connection requests are directed to the more powerful caches. Any cache can be designated as backup or overflow for another cache thereby ensuring the highest application availability possible.

In addition, the CACHEdirector supports an API that allows users to design custom scripts that run on caches and control load distribution on the CACHEdirector.

High Availability

As a networking switch, the CACHEdirector is impervious to the topological limitations suffered by two-port cache redirection devices. The CACHEdirector inherently supports full-meshed topologies - eliminating all system-wide single points of failure. With hot stand-by support, the CACHEdirector protects applications against failure of a cache link, switch port or switch, with sub-second detection and failover.

The CACHEdirector constantly monitors cache, application and content availability, bypassing unhealthy caches when it distributes new sessions and automatically re-enrolling them upon service restoration. Intelligent application health checking ensures integrity of the entire data path, including content retrieval, for services including HTTP, NNTP, FTP and DNS.

Adaptive Network Management

Both 10/100 Mbps and 1000 Mbps interfaces on a dual-speed port can be attached to corresponding interfaces on a remote ACEswitch 180 for physical redundancy. The ACEswitch automatically selects the higher speed interface as the active interface and provides failover between interfaces within a second.

S P E C I F I C A T I O N S

STANDARDS SUPPORTED
Spanning Tree (IEEE 802.1d), Logical Link Control (IEEE 802.2), 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX (IEEE 802.3, 802.3u), Flow Control (IEEE 802.3x), RMON (RFC 1757), SNMP (1213 MIB-II, 1643 Ethernet, 1493 Bridge), 1000BASE-SX (IEEE 802.3z), IP, RIPv1, TFTP (RFC 783), BootP (RFC 1542), BootP (RFC 951), Telnet (RFC 854)

10BASE-T/100BASE-TX PORTS
10/100 full or half-duplex (auto-negotiation) with RJ-45 connections for UTP ports

RS-232C CONSOLE
DB-9 serial connection, female DCE interface for out-of-band management

LAYER 2 SUPPORT
802.1Q (256 VLANs), Jumbo Frames (all ports), EtherChannel-compatible trunk groups, 802.1d Spanning Tree, 1K MAC addresses per port, 8K per switch

ENVIRONMENTAL

Operating -: Temperature 0° to 40° C - Humidity 5% to 85% (non-condensing)
Power -: Auto-ranging supply: 90-265 VAC@ 47-65 Hz - Power consumption: 80 W

CERTIFICATIONS
Emissions: FCC, CFR 47 Part 15, Subpart A ANSI C63.4D11.4 1991, VCCI Class 1, FCC OST 55, CISPR 16, CISPR 22, CSA C108.8-M1983 (R1989), EN55022, CE, EN6100-3-2, EN60555-2 Safety: UL 1950, CUL, DIN/VDE 0805, CSA 22.2, No. 950-93, IEC 950, EN 60950 TUV EMKO-TSE (74-SEC) 207/94 Nordic Deviations to EN 60950

DIMENSIONS Width: 17.00 inches (43.8 cm)
Depth: 18.00 inches (36.8 cm)
Height: 3.47 inches (8.74 cm)
Weight: 9 lbs (4.1 kg)
(Standard 19" EIA rack or wall mountable)

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