The DECNIS 500/600 Multiprotocol Bridge/Router and Gateway

The DECNIS 500/600 high-performance multiprotocol bridge/router and gateway are described. The issues affecting the design of routers with this class of performance are outlined, along with a description of the architecture and implementation. The system described uses a distributed forwarding algorithm and a distributed buffer management algorithm executed on plug-in linecards to achieve scalable performance. An overview of the currently available linecards is provided, along with performance results achieved during system test.