The Ins and Outs of Layer 4+ Switching.ppt

NANOG L4 Switching Presentation The Ins and Outs of Layer 4+ Switching Is Layer 4 Switching Meaningful? You can’t switch at Layer 4 BUT you can use Layer 4 information to make switching decisions! The term “Layer 4 Switching” is too confusing. It usually means one of two things: 1. Layer 4 information is used to prioritize and queue traffic (routers have done this for years) 2. Layer 4 information is used to direct application sessions to different servers (next generation load balancing) Though the term may be meaningless the idea and value of L4 switching is valid Packet-by-Packet Traffic ManagementInsufficient Session-Based Traffic ManagementRequired How L4-Aware Systems Work By making intelligent switching decisions and to forward frames based on TCP/UDP port information and IP source/destination addresses L4 switching=Session Switching examines client requests directed at the L4 switch multiplexes client requests across any server available to handle those requests passively measures application health and responsiveness to determine server availability stateful processing By combining the benefits of L4 sofware on a high-speed L2 switching platform By using this information to establish policy controls for how traffic is to be managed Why is L4-switching important? Emergence of L4-Aware DevicesSession Management and Packet-Switched Devices Integrating L4 Switching Traffic Management Required for New Global Applications Key Layer 4-based Applications 1. Local/Global Server load balancing 2. High availability applications 3. Web Cache Redirection 4. DNS redirection 5. Firewall Load Balancing 6. URL-based redirection, switching Local Server Load Balancing Scalable application processing capacity Add servers on-demand High availability Server/application health monitoring Backup and overflow servers Hot-standby switch configurations Tiers-of-service by servers Priority users/applications can be directed to premium servers Integrated switch and load bal