System Architecture Description for M320, T320, T640, and T1600 Routers
The M320 Multiservice Edge Router and T320, T640, and T1600 Core Routers have two main architectural components:
- Routing Engine—One or more Routing Engines provide Layer 3 routing services and network management.
- Packet Forwarding Engines—These high-performance, ASIC-based components provide Layer 2 and Layer 3 packet switching, route lookups, and packet forwarding.
The Routing Engines and the Packet Forwarding Engines perform their primary tasks independently, although they constantly communicate through multiple 100-Mbps links. This arrangement streamlines forwarding and routing control and runs Internet-scale backbone networks at high speeds. Figure 1 shows the relationship between the Routing Engine and the Packet Forwarding Engines.
Figure 1: Router Architecture
