Cisco 11506 - CSS Content Services Switch Datasheet page 2

Scalable Distributed Architecture for
Today and Tomorrow
In a typical deployment, the Cisco CSS 11500 intercepts a request
from a client browser, characterizes the flow by reading Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP) headers, selects a destination server based
on resource availability, and forwards the flow. Because it quickly
processes the entire HTTP header (full URL, cookie, and extensive
resource verification information), the Cisco CSS 11500 identifies
the user, what the user wants to do, and how best to service the
user's request within a global Web infrastructure.
The Cisco CSS 11500 provides a fully distributed architecture—all
modules in the system contribute to the overall processing and
memory needs for policy-based flow setup and flow forwarding. In
this way, performance scales linearly as modules are added, and
heavy traffic that hits one module can be balanced to others within
a single system. Therefore, the Cisco CSS 11500 balances traffic not
only within a data center but also across its own internal modules.
This innovative architecture addresses the primary limitations of
PC-and application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)-based
solutions. Unlike PC-based systems, the network processors of the
Cisco CSS 11500 provide ample packet processing power and
bandwidth, avoiding the bottlenecks of the PC bus and a single
central processor. And unlike ASIC-based platforms, the powerful,
yet adaptable processors of the Cisco CSS 11500 enable easy
integration of new software features.
The Cisco CSS 11500 can apply all its processing power to any port
at any time, and it can grow with changing feature and scalability
requirements. The system is designed to readily adapt to changing
e-business needs—without complex and costly hardware upgrades.
New Standard in High Availability
The Cisco CSS 11500 delivers ASR—the industry's first stateful
Layer 5 session redundancy feature that enables failover of
important flows while maximizing performance.
Some flows—such as a long-lived File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or a
database session—may be mission critical, but many flows are not.
Most solutions on the market today require all traffic—important or
not—to be backed up from one unit to another. If the majority of
flows is not critical, most of system performance is wasted on
unnecessary back ups.
With ASR, the Cisco CSS 11500 may be configured so that critical
flows are marked as replication worthy, whereas others need not be
marked as such. ASR focuses traffic management resources precisely
where needed.
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SSL Integration for Security and Performance
Cisco offers the most scalable integrated SSL solutions of any Layer
4–7 switches.
SSL, the industry standard for secure transport of traffic from client
browsers to Web servers, presents two critical challenges for today's
e-business infrastructure. First, because SSL encrypts data and
headers, it obscures the request-specific information that Layer 4–7
switching decisions are made on. Second, SSL authentication places
a high processing load for each SSL flow setup.
The Cisco CSS 11500 with integrated SSL modules meets both of
these challenges by combining leading SSL acceleration technology
with the Cisco WebNS technology. In addition to superior price
performance, the SSL module simplifies the management of digital
certificates and offers new possibilities in optimizing the
switch-to-server architecture for security and performance. And SSL
transaction performance may be scaled by adding multiple SSL
modules to a chassis.
Modularity for Investment Protection
Through its modular design, the Cisco CSS 11500 will meet your
functional requirements today while providing for expansion for
tomorrow's needs. The Cisco CSS 11500 Session Accelerator
Module is a cost-effective way to add performance for flow setup
and flow forwarding. A selection of input/output (I/O) modules not
only offers the choice of port densities of Fast or Gigabit Ethernet,
but also boosts flow performance. Optional memory upgrades
increase the number of simultaneous flows supported. PCMCIA
Flash memory and hard disks are supported.
Local and Global Load Balancing
By supporting the latest advances in local and global load balancing,
the Cisco CSS 11500 Series Switch not only dramatically increases
site availability—greatly improving user response time and
retention—but also optimally utilizes site resources, thereby
decreasing the cost to serve end users.
The Cisco CSS 11500 learns where specific content resides, either
locally or remotely, and dynamically selects the best Web server or
cache for specific content requests.
Local server selection is based on server load and application
response time, as well as traditional least connection and
round-robin algorithms. Any application that uses standard TCP or
User Datagram Protocol (UDP) protocols can also be load balanced,
including firewalls, mail, news, chat, and Lightweight Directory
Access Protocol (LDAP).
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