The core technology in the Alteon 700 Series is a Web switching ASIC that integrates Layers 2 through 7 switching functions, including Layers 2/3 packet switching, TCP, UDP and IP session switching, content parsing assist, and bandwidth and Class of Service (CoS) management in a single chip. To enable integration of new Web switching services in the future, the ASIC also embeds two RISC processors, allowing software processing to occur at any stage of the hardware switching path with virtually no performance impact.

With a Web switching ASIC at every port, traffic control services on the Alteon 700 Series are distributed across multiple processors with substantial hardware assist. This distributed processing architecture delivers performance far beyond the bounds of traditional, centralized processor switch architectures. Background tasks such as switch management, routing updates and running the user interface are implemented in separate management processors.

• Unique distributed processor architecture delivers high performance and scalability
  
  
• Simultaneous, wire-speed layer-2, 3 and 4 through 7 switching on all ports -- up to 100 Mpps forwarding and 12 million session setups/tear downs per second
  
  
• Up to 180 Gbps aggregate switch capacity
  
  
• Up to 128 10/100 Mbps Ethernet ports and up to 32 Gigabit Ethernet ports
  
  
• IP switching with support for RIP1, RIP2, OSPF, BGP4, DVMRP and PIM
  
  
• Per port packet filtering rules provide flexible control of all IP traffic
  
  
• Line rate filtering for up to 1,024 filters
  per port
  
  
• Scales server capacity, ensures application availability, controls bandwidth and server resources, and protects servers from malicious attacks and intrusion with optional WebOS services
  
  
• Memory capacity for 32 million concurrent, active sessions
  
  
• Multi-level resiliency
  
  
• Standard or optional jumbo Ethernet frame sizes on all ports
  
  
• Spanning Tree per VLAN, up to eight Spanning Trees per switch
  
  
• SNMP, port mirroring and per port RMON
  
  
• EtherChannel™ compatible trunk groups with layer 2, 3 and 4-based hashing

Each port on the Alteon 700 Series switches delivers full wire-speed throughput at layer 2, 3 and layers 4 through 7. With 180 Gbps of aggregate switch bandwidth, the Alteon 714 can forward 100 million (64 byte) packets per second at layer 2 and layer 3 while the 90 Gbps Alteon 708 can forward 50 million (64 byte) packets per second layer 2, 3 and 4. The Alteon 714 can also set up and tear down 12 million TCP connections per second while the Alteon 708 processes 6 million TCP connections per second.

Flexible, Redundant Configurations

The Alteon 700 Series offers a variety of plug-in modules, supporting a range of Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet port configurations. The same modules can be plugged into the Alteon 708 and Alteon 714, maximizing flexibility and investment protection. All connectivity, switch fabric and management modules, as well as power supplies, are hot swappable. In addition, redundant power supplies, switch fabric and management modules, and active-active redundant switch configurations enable the Alteon 700 Series to offer the resiliency expected from data center switches.

Switch-wide filtering rules can be defined on each Alteon 700 Series switch, with any or all rules applied to each port. Administrators can forward or drop packets based on layers 2, 3 and 4 though 7 attributes, including URLs. Alteon 700 Series switches support line rate filtering for up to 1,024 filters per port.