Broadcom Qumran3D: The Industry’s First 5nm 25.6T Router

Sharon Nagar, Principal PLM, gives a review of the latest Broadcom innovations in the WAN space and the world’s first 5nm, 25T router on a single chip. The presentation will cover the phenomenal level of integration that went into the Qumran3D shrinking what used to be a multi RU chassis into a single chip solution, significantly reducing the space and power needed to operate high end routers.

Nagar highlights Broadcom’s work in switching and routing, noting the three main product lines: Trident, Tomahawk, and Jericho, each optimized for different market segments and use cases. These devices share common infrastructure, including connectivity, enhanced telemetry features, and the software core known as the SDK.

The Qumran 3D is a 25 terabit router that is a full carrier-grade router with deep buffers, large routing databases capable of holding the entire internet routing table, and an encryption engine for all its throughput. The Qumran 3D represents a significant advancement in integration, shrinking what used to be a multi-RU (rack unit) chassis into a single chip solution, which reduces space and power requirements for high-end routers.

Sharon explains that the Qumran 3D is part of the Qumran product line, which has been around for ten years and is a parallel line to the Jericho series. The Qumran 3D offers a 100-fold speed increase and 95% power efficiency improvement over the technology from ten years ago. The device has 256 100G PAM4 SerDes, allowing for various port speeds and configurations, and integrates advanced features such as hierarchical traffic management, encryption, and a large number of access control lists (ACLs) and counters.

The Qumran 3D is designed to be flexible and modular, supporting virtualization and multi-tenancy for cloud environments. It comes with tens of thousands of virtual routes and thousands of tunnels, allowing for a large number of services and customers. The routing table has ample capacity to accommodate internet routing table growth until 2030, and the device has over one million ACL rules for policies and security. The encryption engine provides the option to encrypt all traffic without limitations, and the counters on the device help monitor and manage traffic flow and subscriber usage.

The device’s SerDes exceed industry standards, allowing for various optical and copper connection solutions, including linear drive optics, coherent optics, co-packaged optics, and extended reach copper cables. This flexibility offers cost and power savings for operators.

The Qumran 3D’s capabilities make it suitable for various network applications beyond cloud settings, including service provider environments. It can replace larger, more complex systems with multiple chips, simplifying software control and reducing power and space requirements.