Cluster Load Balancer with ATLAS-1000 Platform

As part of our ongoing series of uses cases for the ATLAS-1000 platform, this week we will discuss cluster load balancing.

In order to meet scalability requirements, there are often situations when multiple network monitoring appliances (NMAs) are needed. To effectively use all the NMAs they must be front-ended by a load balancer or packet broker. At a high level these devices take in packet data from the network, inspect the traffic and intelligently (based upon some rules or policy) distribute the traffic to some number of NMAs that form the cluster. The NMAs may be homogenous (different instances of the same function) or heterogeneous (cluster of NMAs with different purposes such as security and performance monitoring).

There are numerous load balancer and packet broker products available in the market from companies such as F5 Networks and Gigamon. These products are certainly appropriate in some situations, but they are also very complicated and very expensive. Sometimes a simpler solution that has a targeted purpose with a much lower price point is more appropriate. This is where the ATLAS-1000 platform shines and delivers tremendous value to networking/security companies and their end users alike.

To learn more about the ATLAS-1000 platform click here.

Host CPU Offload Product Features Summary

wdt_ID Speed 1G 10G 10G 10G 10G/40G 10G/40G 100G 100G 100G
1 Model 4Ku 20ku 40ku 40kq 80ku ATLAS-1100 Service Node ANIC-200KFlex ANIC-100Kq ANIC-200Kq
2 Port/Type 4X1G SFP 2X10G SFP+ 4X10G SFP+ 1X40G QSFP+ 4X10G SFP+ 2X40G QSFP+ 8X10G SFP+ 4x10G SFP+ 1x40G QSFP+ 2x100G QSFP28 2x40G QSFP28 1X100G QSFP28 2X100G QSFP28
3 PCIe Interface Gen3 x8 Gen3 x8 Gen3 x8 Gen3 x8 Gen3 x8 Gen3 x8 Gen3 x16 Gen3 x16 Gen3 x16
4 Dimensions(H x L inches) 4.25 x 6.5   4.25 x 6.25 4.25 x 6.25 4.25 x 6.25 4.25 x 6.25 1.75 x12.28x14 4.25 x 6.5 4.25 x 10.5 4.25 x 10.5
5 Memory 32MB 4G 4G 4G 4G 16/32G 8G 12G 12G
6 Timestamp 5.7 nS 5.7 nS 5.7 nS 5.7 nS 5.7 nS 5.7 nS 4 nS 4 nS 4 nS
7 100% Packet
Capture		 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
8 Gigamon, AristaTimestamp ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
9 Packet Merging ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
10 Packet Parsing ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

About Accolade

Accolade is the technology leader in FPGA-based Host CPU Offload and 100% Packet Capture PCIe NIC’s and Scalable 1U Platforms. Accolade’s line of 1-100GE products enable 100% packet capture, flow classification, flow shunting, deduplication, packet filtering and more. Our customers are global leaders in network monitoring & cybersecurity applications as well as in the network test and measurement, telecom and video stream monitoring markets.

FPGA Acceleration Features

100% Packet Capture | Flow Classification | Flow Shunting | Precise Time Stamping | Packet Merging | Packet Slicing | Packet Parsing | Packet Filtering | Deduplication | Host Packet Buffer | Packet Steering | Direct Memory Access (DMA) | Statistics (RMON1)

Free Product Evaluation

Resolve all your host CPU offload bottlenecks. Share Your Technical Requirements with our FPGA and software experts to tailor the optimal solution. Accolade offers a 60 day free product evaluation for qualified customers to fully test and evaluate our products.