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Configuring Cross-Connect on NFX Series Devices

You can configure cross-connect feature on NFX Series devices when there is a requirement to switch the traffic from one interface to the other interface without using the MAC-based forwarding rule. The cross-connect feature allows you to connect any two NFV backplane interfaces, which can be either two VNF interfaces or one VNF and one NIC interface to switch traffic between the interfaces. You can either switch all traffic or traffic belonging to a particular VLAN, unidirectionally or bidirectionally.

Note:

  • On NFX150 and NFX250 NextGen devices, virtual interfaces can be hsxe0, hsxe1, or ge-1/0/x connected to NFV backplane.

  • On NFX350 devices, virtual interfaces can be hsxe0, hsxe1, hsxe2, hsxe3, or ge-1/0/x connected to NFV backplane.

  • On NFX250 devices, virtual interfaces can be hsxe0 or hsxe1.

Note:

Cross-connect feature is not supported on VNF interfaces that are SR-IOV interfaces.

You can configure the following types of cross-connect on your device:

  • Port cross-connect—You can configure port cross-connect between two OVS interfaces. All traffic is switched between two OVS interfaces in the cross-connect configuration.

  • VLAN cross-connect—You can specify a VLAN ID in the cross-connect rule to redirect the traffic from a particular VLAN on an OVS interface to a different interface. All VLAN cross-connects have higher precedence over port cross-connects.

  • Untagged cross-connect—You can choose to redirect the untagged frames out of a trunk port to a different destination port by specifying the VLAN ID as none in the cross-connect CLI. During this process, you can additionally add a VLAN tag by mentioning the VLAN ID in the other entry of the cross connect rule.

Single leg cross-connect feature allows configuration of single entry on either VNF interface or virtual interface and configure other entry at any later point of time. Single leg cross-connect status is down until the other entry is configured and the interface status of both the entries is up. In a single leg cross-connect configuration, traffic flow is not present until the other entry of the cross-connect is configured.

Unidirectional cross-connect feature allows the traffic to be forwarded conditionally or unconditionally in a single direction. Traffic flow in the opposite direction follows the MAC-based forwarding rule.

The cross-connect feature supports the following:

  • Unconditional and conditional cross-connect between two interfaces on the NFV backplane.

  • VLAN-based traffic forwarding between two interfaces on the NFV backplane support the following functions:

    • Allows to switch traffic based on a VLAN ID.

    • Allows to switch traffic flow from trunk to access interfaces.

    • Allows to switch traffic flow from access to trunk interfaces.

    • Allows to add a VLAN tag to the traffic, remove the VLAN tag from the traffic, and rewrite the existing VLAN tag to a different tag while switching the traffic between the interfaces.

Note:

  • When two VNF interfaces are part of cross-connect configuration, and if one of the VNF interfaces is disabled, then all traffic from the VNF interface which is up and is part of cross-connect, is dropped.