* Advantages of modular operating systems
DAS readies buildings for wireless
Modular OS design cuts downtime
By Sam Farsad
Today, companies require infrastructure uptime of 99.999% (five nines) to maximize the performance of business-critical applications and increase productivity. Unfortunately, traditional Ethernet LAN switching systems were not designed with the features and functionality needed to support this level of reliability. A new development to help solve this problem is the use of modular architectures in Ethernet LAN switch operating systems.
The health and robustness of an Ethernet switch operating system is critical to maximize network uptime. Traditional monolithic operating system designs use one static-compiled image and run in a single memory address space. This means that network switches are always running in an “all or nothing” mode. If any one element or application within an operating system fails or needs to be updated, the entire system must be shut down and restarted, ceasing all packet flows.
With a modular design, network functions are broken up into distinct processes with standard interfaces. In this architecture, the clearly defined processes operate independently. If a new process needs to be added or one should fail, require an update or need to be managed independently, the status of that process will not affect any of the other functions of the switch. This means the switch can continue delivering network services and constant connectivity to users.
The main elements of a network switch modular operating system are a kernel and a set of dynamically loadable applications with their own separate and protected memory spaces. The kernel is protected from service and application failures. Each process can be monitored to determine if it is operating correctly. If there is a problem, the process can be restarted dynamically, thus avoiding a reboot of the entire system. This maintains the uptime of the underlying infrastructure, system applications and overall operating system.
For the complete article – and an accompanying diagram – please go to:
https://www.nwfusion.com/news/tech/2005/021405techupdate.html?nlo
