TX Matrix Routing Matrix Control Plane Architecture

The routing matrix contains two control planes. All master Routing Engines in the TX Matrix router and T640 routers are on one control plane; all backup Routing Engines are on another control plane (see Figure 1). To manage the Routing Engines on a control plane, you must be logged into the Routing Engine in the TX Matrix router on that control plane. For example, you must be logged into the backup Routing Engine in the TX Matrix router to upgrade the software of all backup Routing Engines in the routing matrix.

Figure 1: Routing Matrix Routing Engine Connections

The TX Matrix Routing Engine connects to a high-speed switch through a 1-Gbps link within the host subsystem. The switch provides a 100-Mbps link to each T640 Routing Engine. The 100-Mbps links are provided through the UTP Category 5 Ethernet cable connections between the TX-CIPs and the T-CBs in the T640 routers.

The kernel synchronization process running on each T640 router Routing Engine synchronizes the TX Matrix Routing Engine's forwarding table with the forwarding table on a T640 router. The Junos kernel running on each T640 router Routing Engine copies its forwarding table to all Packet Forwarding Engines in each T640 router.

Figure 2 illustrates the control plane architecture.

Figure 2: Routing Matrix Control Plane Architecture