7170 Series | Platform Overview

Programmable Architecture

The 7170 series offers a protocol independent switch architecture with a highly programmable packet pipeline that allows the addition

of new protocols, encapsulation and tunneling features to the packet processor through simple software upgrades without changes to

the underlying hardware. This allows for rapid testing and deployment avoiding costly replacements or major upgrades. A recent

example of a new encapsulation in the data center environment is VXLAN which required new silicon technology, delaying customer

deployments and innovation.

Match-Action Units

The 7170 series packet processor pipeline consists of identical blocks of hardware stages or Match-Action Units. The Match-Action Units

are generic and can be configured to provide a specific function programmatically. Each Match-Action Unit extracts a match key from a

broad set of fields in the packet header and the application header. The key is used to lookup in the match table resulting in a broad set

of actions and stateful table updates. This architecture results in a configurable data plane with very high throughput, broad range of

packet processing functionality and application visibility.

Flexible and Scalable Resources

Network scalability is directly impacted by a switches forwarding tables. The 7170 Series provide flexibility on how memory resources

are allocated among the different tables and features. The architecture allows for flexible and programmable allocation of available

resources to achieve maximum efficiency for any given customer application. This allows for deployment of the 7170 Series across

traditional use cases with standard scale requirement as well as a wide range of use cases with unique resource requirements.

Application Profiles

The 7170 series with Arista EOS support a rich set of both data plane and control plane features and capabilities with a programmable

SDK that address the deployment in either a leaf or spine role in two-tier networks. Each application profile provides a targeted set of

data plane and control plane features with the feature scale tailored to solve a specific application. Arista and customers can leverage

P4 to define a new forwarding profile for the 7170 packet pipeline, to deliver custom behavior, change lookups performed on the

packets or rapidly develop and test new functionality. This flexibility provided by multiple forwarding profiles written in P4 and

compiled into Arista EOS, addresses multiple real world requirements for scale, advanced telemetry, security and encapsulation and can

be further customized to specific customer use-cases. The Enhanced feature license enables use of specialist profiles.

Some examples of solutions the 7170 Series can enable:

• Network Overlay and Virtualization profile in a bare metal environment offloads network functions such as traffic segmentation or

tunnel encapsulation from virtual servers freeing up compute resources and accelerating applications

• Flexible Routing and Segmentation profile supports a large FIB with provisions for customizations such as remove or change VLAN

tags, modify MPLS labels and implement custom protocols

• Network Security profile supports firewall functionality such as learn and track micro flows and sessions, identify anomalies and take

preventive measures dynamically

• Large Scale Network Address Translation profile to conceal internal networks, allow duplicate address spaces and facilitate IPv4 to

IPv6 migration

• Network and Application Telemetry with flow level visibility, custom application counters, configurable thresholds and alarms,

timestamping and end to end latency

• Large Scale ACL’s with support for stateful ACLs, rule based policies, hierarchical ACLs and conditional filtering for enhanced security

and application performance.

PCIe

Control and configuration

Common

Queuing and

Packet Data

Buffers

CPU MAC

DMA

Engines

Reset and

Clocks

10/40/100G

Rx MACs

Ingress

Match-Action

Pipeline

Egress

Match-Action

Pipeline

10/40/100G

Tx MACs

10/40/100G

Rx MACs

Ingress

Match-Action

Pipeline

Egress

Match-Action

Pipeline

10/40/100G

Tx MACs

10/40/100G

Rx MACs

Ingress

Match-Action

Pipeline

Egress

Match-Action

Pipeline

10/40/100G

Tx MACs

10/40/100G

Rx MACs

Ingress

Match-Action

Pipeline

Egress

Match-Action

Pipeline

10/40/100G

Tx MACs

Arista 7170 Series Packet Pipeline Architecture