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Processing / Cycle Timings Cisco Hardware

swain9063058
Level 1
Level 1

Hi All,

Not sure if this is the correct discussion board however....

Are there nominal timing values provided in any of the Cisco product data sheets etc... which state the processing/cycle time of the switch hardware, e.g.

How long does it take a packet of information which is received Port 1X to then be transmitted on Port 2X as an example.

The switch hardware I'm specifically interested in are IE4000 series and C9300L series switches.

Thanks

Swain90

4 Replies 4

pieterh
VIP
VIP

specs as you requested are not specified
What comes closest is Cisco Catalyst 9300 Series Switches Data Sheet - Cisco table-8 and -9
as packets are forwarded by hardware, cycle time is very low 
but be aware it will depend on queuing if multiple data streams are sent to the same output-port

 

Joseph W. Doherty
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

Usually such information isn't provided as other latency considerations have a much bigger impact, such as waiting for a frame to fully arrive before it can be forwarded (the latter being the reason for cut through switching).  (Hmm, I'll need to work out the latency for 100 Gbps. [.12 us for 1500 bytes?] Anyway, I recall [?] typical switch processing being 15 us or less, i.e. down to fractional us, possibly as little as double digit ns.)

Again, often switching latency isn't a principal bottleneck, but if it is, it might create some ,"interesting" design challenges.

Out of personal curiosity, I tried to verify my recollections that actual switch forwarding is low microseconds to fractional microseconds.  Actual numbers for that are almost impossible to obtain, but latency numbers for cut-through switching, which, I believe, includes at least looking at the destination MAC, can be found in fractional microseconds.  (I.e. my recollections appear to be somewhat accurate.)

I also found confirmation that it only takes .12 us for 1500 bytes at 100 gig.

Anyway, below is a bunch of brief references discussing switching latency.

https://blog.ipspace.net/2021/04/switching-latency-relevant.html

https://networking.report/Resources/Whitepapers/196c5828-cb30-4664-8269-c524c18b55eb_Latency-in-Ethernet-Switches.pdf

https://www.networkacademy.io/ccna/ethernet/store-and-forward-vs-cut-through-switching

https://soc-e.com/switch-latencies-comparison/

swain9063058
Level 1
Level 1

Thanks for your help on this!

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