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I need to install a LAN that is a hybrid between a star LAN and a cascade LAN. There are two levels (I mean that the maximum number of link to go from the central switch to the most external switch is 2 cables), and the "central" switch (connected to all other first level switches) is a NetGear ProSafe 8800 Series 6-Slot Chassis. It is connected to first level switches with 10 Gbps cables, and they have a bandwidth greater than 10 Gb.

The central switch should be connected to the external network with a router, and I've seen this router, but my big doubt is about DRAM, which is only 1/2 GB. So if the switch linked to it has a bandwidth a lot greater than 2 GB, will the router be a bottleneck?

Ramy Al Zuhouri
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1 Answers1

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It's going to depend on what features you're intending to use and your exact configuration, but generally RAM in a router is primarily going to be used for routing tables, route cache, security policy etc. and if you've got it enabled, connection tracking.

If the network is working properly, packets spend almost zero time in the router, so the DRAM capacity is pretty much irrelevant for packet forwarding rate, as long as there's enough for a few 10s of ms of packet buffer. However you can definitely create configurations that depend a lot more on RAM and may fail entirely or slow down drastically if you don't have enough.

As far as basic PPS (packets per second) rate is concerned though it's basically not a factor.

the-wabbit
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Keenan
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