Barefoot partners with AT&T and SnapRoute to deploy revolutionary forwarding plane programmability into high-speed networks

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 4, 2017) - At the Open Networking Summit (ONS) April 3-6, Barefoot Networks will showcase the most detailed visibility into networks ever seen. The demonstrations will run on Barefoot's 6.5Tb/s Tofino™ switch, the world's fastest and P4™ programmable switch chip that has been sampling to customers since Q4 2016. Barefoot will demonstrate how Tofino can be deployed in networks to enable fine-grained visibility to detect and fix performance issues caused by a host of problems including path and latency variations as well as "microbursts" at port speeds up to 100Gb/s.

AT&T has partnered with Barefoot and SnapRoute to enable this deep and far-reaching visibility into its production network using Tofino and In-band Network Telemetry (INT). In an example of the speed and efficiency enabled by Tofino and P4, AT&T's idea of gaining this packet-by-packet and real-time visibility went from whiteboard to production deployment in a matter of weeks.

Barefoot has also collaborated with Intel to create a new reference platform using the 6.5Tb/s Tofino based Wedge 100B switches and Intel® Silicon Photonics CWDM4 and PSM4 100G optical modules. The reference platform, available today, is a validated solution for reliable and efficient transport of multiple terabits of traffic, allowing data center operators to easily upgrade to more than double the bandwidth of their existing networking equipment.¹

Real-time Path and Latency Visualization: ONS attendees will get a chance to see first-hand the trailblazing visibility enabled by Tofino and INT in AT&T's network. This demo mimics the live trial performed by AT&T sending customer traffic between Washington, D.C. and San Francisco in their production network on March 28. This trial used Tofino-based 6.5 Tb/s Wedge 100B switches running SnapRoute's FlexSwitch software enabling INT for MPLS Tunneled packets giving it fine-grain, instantaneous visibility into packets' path and latency.

"SnapRoute is delighted to partner with Barefoot Networks in bringing revolutionary visibility into AT&T's production network," said Jason Forrester, CEO and Founder at SnapRoute. "Our modular and extensible FlexSwitch software together with Barefoot's P4 programmable Tofino silicon are unleashing functionality that was never before possible in the forwarding plane, giving full control of the networking stack to the network owners."

Another problem that is a bane to the network operators is "microbursts." It is extremely hard to detect microbursts in real-time; these are brief but disastrous spikes in traffic causing packet drops or jitter. Microbursts only get harder to spot as networks scale to carry more traffic at port speeds of 100Gb/s, and as more traffic moves to the public cloud, including service-providers deploying NFV in data centers.

With Tofino and INT, you can not only see these microbursts in real-time, but also identify the offending traffic flow or application. With the culprit identified, corrective action can be taken depending on the signature of the failure -- whether it is application misbehavior or human configuration error.

Real-time 100Gb/s Microburst Detection and Correction: In this demonstration, Barefoot will visualize real-time per-packet queue occupancy levels using INT on the new Barefoot-Intel reference platform with two fully-populated Wedge 100B switches. The advanced telemetry is achieved while also running the typical forwarding features found in a data center top-of-rack switch to nanosecond precision. This allows for real-time detection of microbursts, giving the necessary information for network owners to identify the offending application and take corrective action.

"Barefoot is leading the way into the future of networking by delivering programmability and performance without compromise to the users of its trailblazing technology," said Craig Barratt, CEO of Barefoot Networks. "Barefoot's Tofino programmable switch delivers precise and real-time network telemetry information needed to detect and correct problems in the fastest networks, right down to the nanosecond."

"The exponential increase in data center traffic is driving the need for high-speed, power-efficient and reliable connectivity solutions," said Alexis Bjorlin, VP Data Center Group & GM Connectivity Group at Intel. "Barefoot's fully programmable 6.5 Tb/s Tofino-based Wedge 100B switch, together with our high-volume 100G silicon photonics optical modules, gives network operators and cloud service providers the ability to upgrade their existing equipment and benefit from the high bandwidth and advanced telemetry provided by this solution."

Announced in June 2016, Barefoot Networks' Tofino Ethernet switch ASICs and Capilano SDE remove the last barrier to full network programmability by opening the forwarding plane, enabling full and granular control of the networking stack down to the packets flowing on the wire. Its first Tofino chips were delivered to customers in Q4 2016 and the company continues to add industry leaders to its growing network of partners.

Meet Barefoot at ONS 2017

In its sixth year, ONS brings together enterprises, carriers and cloud service providers to share best practices, highlight innovation and discuss the future of open networking. To connect with Barefoot Networks at ONS 2017, find them at booth #124 or arrange a meeting by contacting info@barefootnetworks.com.

¹ Performance disclaimer: 2x bandwidth claim is based on maximum theoretical throughput of 6.5Tb/s vs. current generation 3.2Tb/s Ethernet switches.

About Barefoot Networks

Barefoot Networks launched in 2016 after two years of developing the most programmable and -- at 6.5Terabits/second -- the fastest switches ever built; twice as fast as the previous on record. By enabling organizations to define the network forwarding plane in software, Barefoot empowers network owners and their infrastructure partners to design, optimize, and innovate to meet their specific requirements and gain competitive advantage. In combining the P4 programming language with fast programmable switches, Barefoot has also created an ecosystem for compilers, tools, and P4 programs to make P4 accessible to anybody. Barefoot's founders -- Pat Bosshart, Martin Izzard, Dan Lenoski, Nick McKeown -- bring the company more than 100 years of experience in building the fastest and biggest networking systems in the world. Backed by Google Inc., Goldman Sachs Principal Strategic Investments, Alibaba, Tencent and by premier venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Andreessen Horowitz, Barefoot Networks is headquartered in Silicon Valley. For more information, visit http://www.barefootnetworks.com. Follow us on Twitter: @barefootnetwork. Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/barefootnetworks

Barefoot Networks, the Foot Logo and Tofino are trademarks of Barefoot Networks. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.