Free hardware: Facebook's 6-pack modular switch

The company Facebook continues to develop the design of various elements of server hardware and lay out in free access their design and control programs.

In June 2014, she handed the Wedge switch to the top-of-rack community, a Linux-based software called FBOSS for it, as well as the network architecture of the data center . And now the last missing element is designed - the modular switch “ 6-pack ”.


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The 6-pack platform uses Wedge as basic building blocks. The platform contains 12 independent switching elements. Each of them can switch 1.28 terabits / s and runs on its own operating system on a local server and is completely independent. Thus, it is possible to modify any part of the system without affecting the system level in the general non-blocking topology.

Such a configuration is often called hybrid SDN.

Below is a high-level “6-pack” block diagram and internal topology.

Line card

Fabric card

Just like the top-of-rack Wedge switches and the FBOSS operating system, the new modular switch is now being tested in Facebook data centers.