OCP Approves the Contribution of the Next Generation Distributed Disaggregated Chassis
New Taipei, Taiwan, December, 2, 2022 -- UfiSpace, the leading provider of open disaggregated networking solutions, announced today that their joint contribution, spearheaded by AT&T, for a DDC v2 specification has been approved by the Open Compute Project (OCP).
The Distributed Disaggregated Chassis (DDC) represents a major innovation in the development of carrier core and edge transport networks, enabling service providers with better optimized network builds, unprecedented scalability options, and simplified network maintenance. It takes apart traditional chassis-based router into separate building blocks: DCP – line cards, DCF – fabric cards, DCM – management switches, and DCC – software controller based on COTS servers; enabling service providers to mix-and-match the best optimized hardware components and software solutions. The first version of DDC was first introduced by AT&T in 2019 and contributed to the Open Compute Project.
UfiSpace, collaborating with DriveNets, became the pioneers and industry leaders in the development of the DDC routing system. With UfiSpace providing white box line cards (DCP) and fabric cards (DCF) based on merchant silicon and DriveNets providing open network operating system (NOS) and orchestration software.
The first specification of DDC featured DCP1 (UfiSpace S9700-53DX), a 40-port 100G open core/edge router and DCP2 (S9700-23D), a 10-port 400G open core/edge router, both of which were based on Broadcom Jericho 2. A third DCF (S9705-48D) was a 48-port 400G fabric switch based on Broadcom Ramon. It was tied together with DNOS and DNOR, DriveNets network operating system and network orchestrator, respectively. The minimal capacity of the routing cluster within this first specification was 4Tbps with a maximum capacity of 192Tbps.
The latest specification included updates to hardware and software that enable a wider application range, further optimizes power efficiency and deployment scale, and significantly simplify its network management.
The hardware specification was updated with the inclusion of the following solutions:
DCP3 (UfiSpace S9710-76D), a 36-port 400G open core/edge router based on Broadcom Jericho 2C+ which offers switching capacity of 14.4Tbps and features MACSEC enabled on every port, TCAM, and ample 8GB of packet buffer. The new white box targets both the service provider WAN and DCI of cloud service provider use cases, as well as primary applications of core and edge networks. With the inclusion of DCP3, the maximum capacity of the DDC cluster was increased to 691Tbps.
DCP4 (UfiSpace S9701-82DC), a 64-port 25G and 12-port 100G open core/edge router based on Broadcom Jericho 2C, which offers switching capacity of 2.4Tbps, TCAM, and 4GB of packet buffer. The new white box further extends DDC application reach to access and aggregation networks where lower speed interfaces of 1/10/25G are needed. The Cloud-native architecture of DDC also enables DCP4 to replace DCM1 and DCC1 to be designated as DCCM1.
Among other important changes to hardware specifications, the new contribution included timing modules introduced on DCP3 and DCP4 with a proposal of a mechanism for transporting PTP timing across the DDC system. And inclusion of 3RU form factor, with 1RU/2RU still being preferred, to accommodate 400G/800G ZR/ZR+ as necessary.
The new specification provided the inclusion of an Automatic Firmware Updater for the DDC cluster. The firmware updater's mechanism establishes a protocol between the network operating system (NOS) and the hardware white boxes. The protocol enables automated firmware updates for multiple nodes within DDC cluster no matter the software or hardware vendor. The new approach significantly improves DDC cluster's resilience and massively simplifies its operations.
The DDC v2 specification document is available at OCP's contribution database: DNX-based Distributed Disaggregated Chassis Routing System Evolution (V2): Specification of Hardware and Capabilities Rev 2.0x.
About UfiSpace
UfiSpace is a leading provider for end-to-end 5G networking solutions for telecommunication companies, cloud service providers and data centers. Through passion, dedication, and engineering excellence, our innovative 5G technologies has led to worldwide deployments of our disaggregated cell site gateway routers (DCSG) and the world's first Distributed Disaggregated Chassis (DDC) routing system for a disaggregated IP/MPLS backbone. With a vertically integrating supply chain, we deliver high quality and cost-effective open networking solutions with the goal of accelerating industry growth and lowering the costs of 5G deployments for our customers. To keep updated with UfiSpace's latest activities please follow us on LinkedIn.
UfiSpace Media Contact:
Allison Chen
Allison.chen@ufispace.com