Brocade routers feature industry-leading scalability, offering massive route capacity in the Route Information Base (RIB). This capacity is complemented by extremely fast routing processors on the management modules and fast Forwarding Information Base (FIB) table download to the line cards. This design enables fast route table calculation and path recovery in case of a network failure.

Dramatic changes in Internet traffic patterns (caused by the rise of point-to-point video, mobile Internet devices, and cloud services) have necessitated the use of hardware-driven, robust, high-end routing techniques in the core and distribution layers of ISP networks. Brocade Direct Routing effectively addresses this critical need by providing complete FIB programming in the line card hardware to offer consistent high-performance routing, regardless of the traffic patterns.

Brocade carrier-class routers feature best-in-class interior and exterior gateway protocols that are commonly deployed in ISP networks. These routers support standard IPv4 routing protocols—including Routing Information Protocol (RIP), Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS), and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP/BGP-MP for IPv6).

To meet increased demand for IPv6, Brocade offers ISPs dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 routing on many platforms, including the Brocade MLX Series, NetIron XMR Series, NetIron CER 2000 Series, and NetIron CES 2000 Series. The dual-stack functionality enables ISPs to mix IPv4 and IPv6 routing on the same physical interfaces, allowing them to turn on IPv6 as needed without any performance sacrifice or additional cost.

ISPs also require real-time visibility into traffic loads and traffic composition in order to improve capacity planning, as well as troubleshooting in case of a network problem or a DDoS attack. The support for sFlow technology (RFC 3176) across Brocade products provides a powerful, convenient, and consistent tool to support network-wide visibility.

• Data Sheets

  • Brocade MLX Series Routers (1001.8 KB)

  • Brocade NetIron CER 2000 Series (914.3 KB)

  • Brocade NetIron CES 2000 Series (1.1 MB)

  • Brocade NetIron XMR 4000, 8000, 16000, 32000 (1002.6 KB)

  • Brocade Premier And Premier-Plus Support – Service Provider (618.5 KB)

• Solution Briefs

  • Routing Solutions for Service Providers (807.3 KB)

• White Papers

  • Brocade sFlow for Network Traffic Monitoring (916.7 KB)

  • Brocade Telemetry Solutions (465.8 KB)

  • Introducing the Brocade MLXe: Brocade’s High-Density 100 Gigabit Ethernet IP/MPLS Router (2 MB)