• Supported Platforms
• TX Matrix Plus Routers

• Related Topics
• TX Matrix Plus Router Description
• Routing Matrix with a TX Matrix Plus Router System Architecture
• Switching Plane Connections from the TX Matrix Plus Router to the T1600 Routers
• TX Matrix Plus TXP-F13 SIB Overview
• TX Matrix Plus TXP-F2S SIB Overview

Routing Matrix with a TX Matrix Plus Router Switch Fabric and Switching Plane Architecture

The TX Matrix Plus router TXP-4 configuration consists of one routing matrix switch fabric with five data switching planes. One of the five data switching planes acts as a backup spare to the remaining data switching planes. If faults are detected in an active data switching plane, the plane is taken offline, and the backup spare plane is brought online. When a failed component is replaced and brought online, the data switching plane in which it resides becomes the new backup spare plane.

Each data switching plane consists of one or two TXP-F13 SIBs connected to four TXP-F2S SIBs thorough the midplane. Table 1 shows these connections.

The TXP-F13 SIBs on the TX Matrix Plus router and the TXP-T1600 SIBs on the T1600 router are connected by high-speed optical links within fiber-optic array cables. The switch fabric uses ASICs to perform high-speed packet forwarding between the T1600 routers.

A packet that enters an interface on a PIC in a T1600 router and is destined for another T1600 router in the routing matrix is first forwarded to a Packet Forwarding Engine on the source router. The packet is then forwarded through the Packet Forwarding Engine from the source T1600 router, through the switch fabric on the TX Matrix Plus router, to the target T1600 router. The switch fabric allows high-priority traffic from any Packet Forwarding Engine to an egress Packet Forwarding Engine to be given preferential treatment over low-priority traffic from any other Packet Forwarding Engine. The Packet Forwarding Engine on the target T1600 router forwards the packet to the destination PIC and interface.

Figure 1 illustrates the switch fabric architecture.