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I have absolutely ZERO knowledge on Enterprise Networking. But it strikes me that something as dump as Router, Switches or Network Equipment are still so unstable.

A Hypothetical questions, why not something a 8 ARM 64 bit core Linux computer as switches? Making more logic resides in software instead?

2 comments

There is a move to put more of the switching and routing logic in software (google for openvswitch if you're interested) but part of the problem is that general purpose hardware doesn't stand a hope in hell of keeping up with interesting network data rates. You absolutely need to be doing a fair portion of the work in hardware, the CPUs just coordinate it.

It's probably worth reviewing this article on Intel FM6000 SDN to get a glimpse into the complexity involved.

http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/...