Researchers took a page out of clustered computing's handbook, postulating that Gigabit Ethernet switches could be used in data-center networks to save money over using 10-Gigabit switches.
The network architecture is called "fat tree," and the details are here.
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If you call a "duck" a "fofo 2.0", isn't it still a duck?
I have to shake my head here.
It sounds like this is someone coming up with a new name to grab some headlines.
Aggregation of 100Mbps, and 1Gbps links in a highly resilient manner already exists and has been around since about 2001. Look at MLT (Multilink Trunking) and SMLT (Split Multilink Trunks) DSMLT, and RSMLT for load ballanced resilient multipath, multilink networking.
If your looking for guaranteed bandwidth and QOS over Ethernet, take a look at PBT Trunks (802.1ag) and OAM (802.1ah). All this *without* STP blocked ports or the control plane overhead of MPLS.
I may have missed something in the research paper that was linked to this posting, but the "fat trees" have been around for years in high-availability carrier networks and enterprises that did their research.
It would be interesting to see DSMLT or RSMLT over commodity hardware. Don't get too excited though, there are lots of patents out there that would make this a difficult task.
References:
SMLT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_multi-link_trunking
RSMLT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSMLT
DSMLT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_Multi-Link_Trunking
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