[Xorp-users] Fwd: how FEA interacts with underlying forwarding plane?

[Bruce Simpson]

sharda saiwan wrote:
>
> Actually I am talking about the separation of control plane and data 
> plane. According to the separation concept (the ForCES framework), to 
> control and configure the data plane, the control plane should consist 
> of an image of the underlying data plane (which includes attributes, 
> capabilities and state information).
>
> In this separated control and data plane framework, if we use XORP as 
> a routing daemon, then FEA is the process that contains all these 
> information. So, I think FEA should be placed in control plane and the 
> forwarding/data plane will run on a different system.
>
> Please suggest how XORP can be used in the above scenario.

The point is that whilst the FEA is conceptually part of the control 
plane, it is coupled to the forwarding plane in terms of implementation.

You can't have the FEA separate from the forwarding plane, it needs to 
run on the node which is doing the forwarding, because it encapsulates 
the forwarding plane specifics and what is needed to control it.

I highly encourage you to read the source code, in order to understand 
why these design decisions were made, and also because it will give you 
more of a background (other than theroetical) about exactly what the FEA 
is, what it does, and why.

thanks,
BMS