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We will deal with a series of article related to APS® Networks APS Networks® BF2556X-1T P4 switch. The key highlight of this box is: 

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titleBF2556X-1T unboxing

Parcel

What's in the box

Included items

Quick Installation guide

Front panel

Back panel

APS® Networks APS Networks® BF2556X-1T Racked

APS® Networks APS Networks® BF2556X-1T alongside to his P4 brothers: Edgecore WEDGE100BF32X

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titleHardware consideration

The APS® Networks APS Networks® BF2556X-1T is a horse power:

  • the usage of 8 cores having each one 2 threads speeds up P4 program compilation. (BF2556X-1T  as 2x more core than the WEDGE100BF32X)
  • SyncE 1588 might be certainly important for you should your P4 application require precise time synchronisation capability 
  • Having 1G/10G/25G/40/50G/100G connectivity via SFP28 and QSFP28 will make the BF2556X-1T ready for multiple use case.
    • In a P/PE architecture MPLS PE proposing 1G/10G connectivity and having uplink toward the core
    • In a collapse core can be used a MPLS PE router
    • Can be used as a leaf or Tor switch/router
    • BRAS/BNG router

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In this 1st article you:

  • had a brief description APS® Networks APS Networks® BF2556X-1T hardware platform
  • The hardware provide p4 connectivity at 1GE capacity (16x1GE ports is available)
  • In addition to 1GE it also provide 10/25/40/50/100G connectivity
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titleRARE hardware plarform: [ BF2556X-1T #001 ] - key take-away
  • From RARE/FreeRouter point of view, BF2556X-1T is very good candidate for PE (Provider Edge) router.

The 8x100G ports can make as a strong in a collapse core architecture (P function merge with PE functions), the box can also be used a a BGP route as it boast with 32 GB of RAM (~10 full BGP feeds), but you won't leverage the ports availability. It can be used to implement BRAS/BNG use case but would be also a good candidate as a ToR in Data Center envionment with BGP/MPLS capability and the possibility to provide 1GE connection to existing server purchased beforehand.

  • SyncE 1588 support is a key features if your application needs precision provided by PTP

As we will discover the box, we will explain in further articles how to benefit from this features. 

  • RARE/freeRouter @design can coexist with Virtualisation technology BF2556X-1T

We just started our experience with this box. You'll find further, a series of article dedicated to BF2556X-1T depicting:

  • How to proceed to initial OS installation
  • Proceed to APS® Networks APS Networks® BF2556X-1T software installation (TOFINO SDE and Gearbox) installation
  • Port operations on TOFINO ports SFP28 port 16-47 and QSFP28 port 48-56  
  • Port operations on GearBox ports SFP28 port 1-16 (1G/10G/25G)
  • How to benefit from SyncE 1588 support
  • RARE/freeRouter effective installation

The installation will be implemented should be compliant to ISP TELECOM standard. (It should survives power outage, easy upgrade features, start automatically at boot time without any human intervention)

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