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This document covers Frequently Asked Questions about 6WIND and the
6WINDGate software. If you do not find the answer to your question in this
document, please send an email to support at 6wind.com.
Details about 6WINDGate profiles are available here. A Product Brief for
each 6WINDGate profile can also be found here.
A 6WINDGate license is granted for a processor, a Linux distribution and a
set of modules to develop a product or a range of products. The scope of the
license can be extended when needed.
Yes, the 6WINDGate product is modular. For instance, you can use your own
Control Plane modules and / or select a limited number of modules.
Your 6WINDGate license is granted without any time limitation. 6WINDGate
updates are delivered as long as you have a valid maintenance contract.
We provide maintenance services under an annual contract. Some specific
support services can also be provided according to specific customers'
requirements (Designated Support Engineer, Technical Account Manager,
extended maintenance services ...).
Yes. The standard 6WINDGate training class is a 5 day training that can be
provided at 6WIND or in your premises for a maximum of 10 people. Training
is highly recommended to understand 6WINDGate concepts as early as possible
in your development process. 6WIND also provides a 3-day session focused on
6WINDGate HA for engineers who are already familiar with 6WINDGate concepts.
Our standard training can also be customized upon request to help you to
kick-off your project.
The Carrier Grade Edition includes 6WINDGate High Availability modules as
well as some modules that support very large provider configurations.
6WINDGate software is a mix of software under GPL license and 6WIND license.
Modules covered by GPL license are mainly:
- Unicast Routing Control Plane modules; 6WIND is one of the companies
maintaining Quagga Open Source project.
- Linux networking stack,
- A few standard Linux tools.
The 6WINDGate software license agreement includes an appendix listing the
specific license that applies to each software module.
Yes, 6WIND has all the required authorisations to export cryptography to all
countries that are not under embargo. We have a dedicated document that
details our export license.
6WIND licenses its products to tier-1 customers all around the world. A list
of our main customers is available here.
6WINDGate accelerates packet processing for a myriad of applications
including wireless infrastructure for 3G, WiMAX, LTE, enterprise and
provider routers, security appliances, IPTV, content inspection, IMS ...
One of the key advantages of the 6WINDGate architecture is that Linux APIs
are preserved. So, if your application uses standard Linux APIs, you will
not have to modify your existing application to take advantage of
6WINDGate's packet processing.
Please refer to our security page on our Web site. Applications Notes are
also available here.
Yes. Our 6WINDGate Architecture Overview document can be downloaded
here.
In a standard Linux architecture, the Control Plane updates the
configuration of the Linux networking stack for both static and dynamic
configurations. When using a Fast Path, it also has to be synchronized with
the same information to have a consistent system. 6WINDGate architecture has
been designed to make this synchronization fully transparent.
In 6WINDGate Fast Path-based (EDS and SDS) solutions, the Fast Path receives
all incoming packets in the system. Its goal it to provide very high packet
processing performance. Therefore, it does not process complex, time
consuming packets that represent only a small fraction of the overall
traffic. For example, packets that require a state machine to compute
forwarding information (such as ARP or routing protocols) are not processed
in the Fast Path.
When an incoming packet is too complex to be processed by the Fast Path, it
is sent to Linux as an exception packet, to be processed by the Slow Path or
the Control Plane. Then, thanks to the continuous synchronization mechanism,
the computed information in Linux will be automatically configured in Fast
Path, so that the next packet of the same flow can be processed in Fast
Path.
This Exception mechanism, combined with the Continuous Synchronization
of Linux and the Fast Path, enables 6WINDGate to process any kind of packet
and ensures the consistency of the whole system.
To help you, 6WIND provides you with:
- Evaluation versions for 6WINDGate ADS, EDS and SDS that are available
after signing a Software Evaluation License Agreement,
- Detailed performance tests based on parameters such as number of cores,
packet length ... for 6WINDGate ADS, EDS and SDS versions that are
available after signing a NDA.
These tools can help you to select the best software architecture and our
support team can also help to choose the optimised solution.
If we take the example of a 2-core configuration, the 6WINDGate EDS Fast
Path can benefit from the processing power of the 2 cores (running in SMP
mode), while the 6WINDGate SDS Fast Path will only run on 1 core, as the
other is dedicated to Linux. So, even if 6WINDGate SDS provides higher
performance per core, in cases where Slow Path and Control Plane do not
consume too much bandwidth, 6WINDGate EDS may provide a better solution. For
more than 4 cores, 6WINDGate SDS scales better.
The majority of our 6WINDGate software is generic thanks to Hardware
Abstraction Layers provided for all supported hardware platforms and
providing generic, high-level APIs in the Control Plane, Slow Path and Fast
Path. However, the use of processor specific resources such as hardware
queues for QoS is processor-dependent. 6WIND also implements some specific
low-level optimizations to make the most out of the processor.
No, we do not support other Operating Systems than Linux. Please note that
the Fast Path for 6WINDGate SDS runs outside the OS and can be used in other
environments.
OCF (Open Cryptography Framework) is a standard Control Plane and Slow Path
API used by software to interface crypto engines. The 6WINDGate uses this
API to ease the portability of security software on different platforms
using either built-in crypto engines (multicore processors such as Cavium
Octeon, NetLogic XLR or Freescale QorIQ) or external accelerators (x86 with
PCI external accelerators).
Thanks to the OCF API, your applications (for instance SSL) can
transparently benefit from crypto engines; independently of the underlying
hardware.
Yes. It can be found here.
Yes. A detailed quarterly roadmap is available upon request and after
signing a NDA.
The way cores are shared between the Fast path and Linux is fully
configurable and defined at boot time.
Nothing has to be done as 6WIND provides a complete and integrated solution.
Fast Path modules are integrated together and integrated with the Linux
Networking Stack and Control Plane.
Yes, this solution is implemented in 6WINDGate EDS. This mode shows
excellent performance compared to a standard Linux architecture and a
scalable increase of performance according to the number of cores.
The 6WINDGate Fast Path comes with a fragmentation / reassembly module for
both IPv4 and IPv6 that allows fragmentation / reassembly processing to be
offloaded from the Linux networking stack.
You can start with 6WINDGate as it is today. Thanks to 6WINDGate's flexible
architecture, features that are not available in the Fast Path will be
processed in the Linux networking stack using the Exception Mechanism.
As soon as the required 6WINDGate Fast Path module is available, your
performance will be automatically improved without making any modification
to the Control plane, Linux networking stack or Management plane. New Fast
Path modules can be purchased as extensions of your existing license.
We support the Linux operating system.
6WINDGate 2.x supports Linux kernel versions from 2.6.14 to 2.6.24.
6WINDGate 3.x supports the latest versions of the Linux kernel starting with
2.6.27.
We support reference Linux distributions provided by multicore processor
vendors, Open Source Linux distributions, as well as commercial Linux
distributions such as Wind River Linux. Support of other distributions
including your own is possible upon request.
Although the 6WINDGate Linux networking stack replaces the networking stack
provided by the reference Linux distribution, it preserves standard Linux
APIs (such as skbuff, netdevices, Netfilter, Netlink, socket API, etc.) so
that your existing kernel modules or userland applications do not need to be
modified.
There is no generic answer to this question as it depends on numerous
parameters, such as Linux kernel version, BSP availability, etc.
However, 6WIND has a strong experience porting the 6WINDGate software on top
of various Linux distributions (from 2.6.15 to 2.6.34 kernels) and hardware
architectures (including Cavium Octeon, Netlogic XLR/XLS, Freescale QorIQ,
Intel Architecture, etc.). Please contact 6WIND's Customer Support and
Services team who will evaluate your your project and your requirements.
The 6WINDGate EDS and SDS Linux networking stacks include the 6WINDGate ADS
Linux stack plus the Cache Manager module that ensures Continuous
Synchronization between Slow Path and Fast Path. This architecture avoids
the need for any change to Linux Control Plane or Slow Path modules when
used with the 6WINDGate Fast Path.
(Note that the Cache Manager module has nothing to do with the hardware
memory cache manager on the processor.)
Yes. The 6WINDGate Linux networking stack is implemented without any giant
lock during the packet processing, so that the kernel can process multiple
packets at the same time (up to one per core) in SMP mode.
However, a Linux-based architecture is complex and still requires locking in
certain cases.
VNB (Virtual Networking Blocks) was initially developed as an in-kernel
networking subsystem that follows the UNIX principle of achieving power and
flexibility through combinations of simple modules.
The VNB technology has various applications at each level of the software
architecture. It is well-suited for especially for:
- Protocol encapsulation,
- Feature performance optimization by separation of Linux kernel/Fast Path
packet processing from the Control Plane,
- Assembly of several protocols in order to provide global solutions,
- Driver integration;
and does not require any modification to the Linux networking stack.
Yes. 6WIND has ported the VNB framework at the Fast Path level to bring
similar benefits for the integration of Fast Path Modules. Doing so, the
same source code for a VNB module can be used within the 6WINDGate ADS Data
Plane or 6WINDGate EDS/SDS Fast Path.
You can find an example in section 7.2 of 6WINDGate Architecture Overview
document that can be downloaded here.
The list of the available VNB modules can be found in the 6WINDGate SAD VNB
document available upon request.
The Cache Manager is a Control Plane software module that performs
Continuous Synchronization between Slow Path and Fast Path. It listens to
Linux Netlink notifications resulting from configuration of the Slow Path by
the Control Plane Modules (ARP and NDP entries, L3 routing tables, Security
Associations, etc.) and synchronizes the Fast Path accordingly.
Thanks to the Cache Manager, no change is required to Control Plane Modules
when they are used with the 6WINDGate Fast Path. The Cache Manager is
hardware independent.
We support RIP, RIPng, OSPFv2, OSPFv3 and BGP as well as SMR (Static
Monitored Route) and BFD (Bidirectional Forwarding Detection).
Yes. Virtual Routing is supported for RIP, RIPng, OSPFv2, OSPFv3 and BGP.
Control Plane Virtual Routing has been integrated and validated with the
Fast Path forwarding module that also supports Virtual Routing.
Both IKEv1 and IKEv2 are supported.
Yes. Routing and IKE software that is able to configure Linux kernel routing
or IPsec information will transparently benefit from the 6WINDGate Fast Path
thanks to the Continuous Synchronization mechanism.
IKEv2 VR is under development and will be available soon.
Yes, thanks to the OCF API, your SSL application (or others) can benefit
from the hardware crypto engines. The OCF layer will manage concurrent
access from userland applications and from the Linux kernel or the Fast
Path.
A detailed analysis of the benefits using XML in management systems can be
found in a white paper available here.
A white paper is available here. As an example, it describes
how to integrate OpenVPN software with our XML-based management system.
Yes. 6WIND delivers complete CLI and Web tools for integrated 6WINDGate
features. The 6WINDGate CLI Configuration Guides as well as Web pages
examples are available here.
Yes. 6WINDGate implements an SNMP agent. You can find the list of supported
MIBs here.
Thanks to the 6WINDGate FPS (Fast Path Statistics) module, responsible for
gathering Fast Path statistics and aggregating them with Slow Path
statistics, SNMP queries remain consistent for the whole system even when a
Fast Path is used, transparently for the SNMP agent.
The 6WINDGate management architecture is very flexible and can provide
different solutions for smooth integration of the 6WIND XML-based management
system with an existing one:
- You can call the 6WINDGate management system from yours to integrate the
management of new features brought by 6WINDGate,
- You can extend the 6WINDGate management system to call yours,
- You can interface the XMS Configuration Manager with your own client and
configure 6WINDGate features directly in XML; we provide all the necessary
software documentation for that purpose.
The 6WIND Service and Support team can help you to choose the best solution
according to your requirements.
Yes.
In case of a single multicore architecture, synchronization between the
Linux networking stack and the Fast Path is handled through a shared memory.
In a dual multi core processor architecture, Linux is running on one
processor, while the Fast Path is running on the other one. There is no
shared memory between Slow Path and Fast Path.
In such an architecture, the Fast Path 1CP - 1FP module is required and
allows to synchronize the Slow Path with the remote Fast Path through a
network connection between the two processors.
As a result, the 6WINDGate architecture can be equally deployed over:
- shared cores of a single multicore processor,
- two different multicore processors (one core being allocated to Linux and
the other one to the Fast Path),
- one multicore processor running the Fast Path and another, possibly
non-multicore, processor running Linux.
Yes. You can manage N Fast Paths with a single Control Plane module using
the 1CP - N FP Fast Path module.
Yes. The 6WINDGate HA Architecture Overview document can be downloaded
from our Web site here.
The 6WINDGate HA solution includes:
- Graceful Restart extensions (Linux stack & Control Plane)
- HA Daemon Monitoring System (Control Plane) that monitors 6WINDGate
daemons
- HA Control Plane Synchronization Daemon for different protocols (ARP/NDP,
routing, IPsec, firewall / NAT ...
Please refer to section 5 of the 6WINDGate HA Architecture Overview document
that can be downloaded here.
6WINDGate HA modules are used in LTE infrastructure equipment and Large
Scale NATs.
No, 6WINDGate HA modules are only available in the 6WINDGate Carrier Grade
Edition.
First of all 6WINDGate supports all Cavium Octeon evaluation boards.
We also support Cavium boards from the following board providers: Advantech,
Emerson, GE Intelligent Platforms, Interphase, Narinet, Radisys ... You will
find the updated list of 6WIND partners here.
You need the Cavium Octeon SDK. Other software and toolkits from Cavium can
be integrated with 6WINDGate but they not mandatory. We periodically update
6WINDGate to support the latest versions of the SDK.
Linux userland and kernel software can be debugged using standard Linux
tools, as well as Simple Executive debugging tools provided by Cavium. 6WIND
provides the 6WINDGate Virtual Fast Path, a tool that makes it possible to
run and debug the Fast Path as a Linux userland application on x86.
We take advantage of POW, FPA, hardware helpers (checksum, etc.), timers and
crypto coprocessors.
We have Software Design Documents describing our Fast Path architecture &
components. They focus on the generic part and also provide board-specific
details like the use Cavium Octeon hardware resources.
Yes. We take care to align data structures and also make use of the prefetch
mechanism.
Yes. All versions of 6WINDGate use the integrated Octeon crypto
coprocessors, from Control Plane (through the transparent integration of SSL
with the OCF API), Slow Path or Fast Path.
For the Fast Path, we rely on the queuing mechanism of the Octeon and the
support of RED.
Support for the Cavium Octeon II is planned in our roadmap.
We support the PowerQUICC III MPC8572E and QorIQ P4080 Communications
Processors.
The 6WINDGate supports the Freescale MPC8572 DS and P4080 DS evaluation
boards.
We also support Freescale QorIQ boards from the market-leading board
providers. You will find the updated list of 6WIND partners
here.
The 6WINDGate requires the Freescale LTIB 2.0 SDK (for the reference Linux
distribution, GNU toolchain and LWE).
Linux userland and kernel software can be debugged using standard Linux
tools. 6WIND also provides the 6WINDGate Virtual Fast Path, a tool that
makes it possible to run and debug the Fast Path as a Linux userland
application on x86.
Yes. All versions of 6WINDGate use the integrated Freescale QorIQ crypto
coprocessors, from the Control Plane (through the transparent integration of
SSL with the OCF API), Slow Path or Fast Path.
We take advantage of the DPAA infrastructure (FMAM/QMAN/BMAN) with push-mode
and HW assist features (stashing, warming, SEC engine).
We support Intel32 generic x86 and Clovertown, Intel64 Intel
Xeon 5500 series (Nehalem/Jasper Forest, 4 cores), Intel Xeon
5600 series (Westmere, 6 cores), Sandy Bridge (8 cores).
We support e1000 (Ophir and Zoar) NICs on Intel32 Clovertown
with Bensley boards, and IGB 82576 (1GB, Kawela) and IXGB
82599 (10GB, Niantic) NICs on Intel64 series with S5500 (Hanlan
Creek) boards.
Linux userland and kernel software can be debugged using standard Linux
tools. 6WIND also provides the 6WINDGate Virtual Fast Path, a tool that
makes it possible to run and debug the Fast Path as a Linux userland
application on x86.
Intel provides the VTune™ Performance Analyzer to analyze and improve
Fast Path application performance.
Yes. All versions of 6WINDGate use the AES New Instructions set of Intel
processors or external crypto accelerator boards, from Control Plane
(through the transparent integration of SSL with the OCF API), Slow Path or
Fast Path.
We take advantage from hyperthreading, NUMA, stashing, PCIe bulking, RAM
topology (channel/rank).
The support of QuickAssist is under development and will be available soon.
First of all 6WINDGate supports all NetLogic XLR and XLS evaluation boards.
We also support NetLogic-based boards from the following board providers:
CCPU, JumpGen... You will find the updated list of 6WIND partners here.
You need the NetLogic XLR/XLS SDK. Other software and toolkits from NetLogic
can be integrated with 6WINDGate but are not mandatory. We periodically
update 6WINDGate to support the latest versions of the Netlogic SDK.
Linux userland and kernel software can be debugged using standard Linux
tools, as well as the NetOS GDB debugger. 6WIND provides the 6WINDGate
Virtual Fast Path, a tool that makes it possible to run and debug the
Fast Path as a Linux userland application on x86.
We take advantage of the FMN, the PDE and the parser featured by the Network
accelerators, as well as the Security Acceleration Engines.
We have Software Design Documents describing our Fast Path architecture and
components. They focus on the generic part and also provide board-specific
details like the use of NetLogic XLR hardware resources.
Yes. All versions of 6WINDGate use the integrated NetLogic XLR crypto cores,
from Control Plane (through the transparent integration of SSL with the OCF
API), Slow Path or Fast Path.
Support for NetLogic XLP is planned in our roadmap.
Evaluation versions in binary form for all platforms supported by 6WINDGate
are available after signing a Software Evaluation License Agreement.
Debugging tools provided by processor vendors for their Multicore Executive
Environment can be used with the 6WINDGate Fast Path. 6WIND provides the
6WINDGate Virtual Fast Path, a tool that makes it possible to run and
debug the Fast Path as a Linux userland application on x86.
Yes. The 6WINDGate features a Flow Inspection / Packet Capture Fast Path
module that provides the Berkeley Packet Filtering functionality in the Fast
Path, allowing to monitor Fast Path traffic from the Control Plane.
The 6WINDGate documentation includes:
- SADs (Software Architecture Documents) describing general functionalities
and architecture of each 6WINDGate module,
- SDDs (Software Design Documents) describing detailed implementation of
each 6WINDGate module,
- the 6WINDGate Developer's guide, describing the 6WINDGate development
environment.
Our Customer Support and Services team can also help at different steps of
your development (architecture design, performance optimization, code
review...).
The 6WINDGate Virtual Fast Path is a tool that makes it possible to run the
Fast Path as a Linux userland application. This tool is available on x86
platforms. gcc and GNU tools can be used. For instance, the Fast Path can be
interrupted and restarted as a regular process thanks to gdb. It greatly
helps the first steps of development before the integration on the final
hardware.
We provide the patches and scripts to integrate the 6WINDGate Linux
networking stack on top of Wind River Linux, but we do not integrate the
6WINDGate Control Plane or Fast Path in the Wind River Linux development
framework. This is left to our customers as part of the integration of their
own applications.
As the 6WINDGate preserves standard Linux APIs, interfacing a third party
Control Plane module (routing, security key exchange for instance) is
straightforward and does not require any modification of the source code in
most cases. Moreover, the Exception and Continuous Synchronization
mechanisms take care of synchronizing the Fast Path with the information
that are configured in the Slow Path by your Control Plane module, so that
your system transparently benefits from Fast Path performance.
For instance, third-party routing and IKE daemons have already been
successfully integrated by 6WIND's customers.
Our 6WINDGate Architecture Overview document is ideal for understanding the
main concepts of our software architecture. It can be downloaded
here.
The 6WINDGate is provided with a complete documentation of more than 2000
pages that includes:
- Reading Guide
- Module Data Sheets
- 6WINDGate Architecture Overview
- SAD (Software Architecture Documents)
- SDD (Software Design Documents)
- Developer's guide
- User's Guide for the CLI
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6WIND – Packet processing software for multicore networking and telecom systems (Linux) - ©2010 6WIND. All Rights Reserved. |
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