Network Topology Diagram

Technical Documentation: Server Configuration - Network Topology Diagram Reference System (NTDRS-4000)

This document details the specifications, performance characteristics, operational considerations, and deployment recommendations for the NTDRS-4000 server platform, specifically optimized for high-throughput network topology mapping, real-time traffic analysis, and infrastructure visualization services.

1. Hardware Specifications

The NTDRS-4000 is engineered for maximum I/O throughput and low-latency memory access, critical for processing large volumes of network metadata and maintaining a synchronized, high-fidelity topology map.

1.1 Core Processing Unit (CPU)

The system utilizes dual-socket configuration to maximize core count while maintaining balanced memory channels per NUMA node.

Component	Specification Detail	Rationale
Processor Model	2x Intel Xeon Scalable Platinum 8580+ (Sapphire Rapids Refresh)	High core count (60 Cores/120 Threads per socket) and advanced vector extensions (AVX-512, AMX).
Base Clock Speed	2.2 GHz	Optimized for sustained high-load processing over peak burst frequency.
Max Turbo Frequency	3.8 GHz (Single Core)	Sufficient headroom for occasional high-priority tasks like dependency recalculation.
L3 Cache (Total)	180 MB (90 MB per socket)	Large L3 cache minimizes latency for frequently accessed topology metadata tables.
TDP (Total)	2 x 350W	Requires robust cooling solutions (see Section 5).
Instruction Sets Supported	AVX-512, VNNI, AMX, DL Boost	Essential for rapid graph database traversal and ML-driven anomaly detection within the network fabric.

1.2 System Memory (RAM) Configuration

Memory is configured to maximize bandwidth and adhere strictly to NUMA zoning principles, ensuring that network interface cards (NICs) communicate optimally with local memory banks.

Component	Specification Detail	Rationale
Total Capacity	2 TB (Terabytes)	Required for caching large adjacency matrices and historical flow records.
Memory Type	DDR5 ECC Registered DIMMs (RDIMMs)	Superior bandwidth and error correction over standard DDR4.
Configuration	32 x 64 GB DIMMs (16 per CPU socket)	Optimal population for 8 memory channels per socket, achieving full memory bandwidth utilization.
Speed and Latency	5600 MT/s, CL40	Highest stable speed supported by the chosen CPU platform for topology processing.
Memory Mapping Policy	Strict NUMA Balancing	Critical for ensuring data locality between CPU cores and attached NICs.

1.3 Storage Subsystem

The storage solution prioritizes fast sequential read/write for log ingestion and rapid random access for database lookups related to device configuration and state.

Component	Specification Detail	Rationale
Boot/OS Volume	2 x 480GB NVMe M.2 (RAID 1)	Fast boot and operating system responsiveness.
Topology Database (Primary)	4 x 3.84 TB Enterprise NVMe SSDs (PCIe 5.0) in RAID 10	High IOPS (Targeting > 2.5M IOPS) and redundancy for the core graph database (e.g., Neo4j instance).
Log/Telemetry Ingestion Buffer	2 x 7.68 TB U.2 NVMe SSDs in RAID 0 (Volatile Buffer)	High-speed write buffer for transient flow data (e.g., NetFlow/sFlow records) before batch processing.
Archival Storage (Cold)	Optional 4 x 16 TB SAS HDDs (RAID 5)	For long-term compliance storage of historical network state snapshots.

1.4 Network Interface Controllers (NICs)

The network subsystem is the defining feature of the NTDRS-4000, designed for massive ingress capacity and low latency for management plane communication.

Interface Type	Quantity	Specification	Role
Data Ingestion (Telemetry)	4	2 x 200 GbE QSFP56-DD (PCIe 5.0 x16 interface)	High-speed reception of flow data and streaming telemetry from core network devices.
Management/Out-of-Band (OOB)	2	2 x 10 GbE Base-T (Dedicated BMC/IPMI)	Secure, isolated access for administrative tasks and hardware monitoring.
Storage Network (Internal)	2	2 x 32 Gb Fibre Channel or NVMe-oF (Optional)	High-speed connectivity to external SAN or secondary storage arrays.

The primary 200 GbE interfaces utilize RDMA capabilities (RoCEv2) to bypass the kernel stack for flow record processing, significantly reducing CPU overhead and latency.

1.5 Motherboard and Expansion

The platform uses a proprietary server board designed for high-density PCIe lane distribution.

• **Chipset:** Dual Intel C741 Platform Controller Hub (PCH) equivalent architecture supporting PCIe 5.0.
• **PCIe Slots:** 8 x PCIe 5.0 x16 slots available.

   *   4 slots populated by the 200 GbE NICs (x16 each).
   *   2 slots populated by NVMe storage controllers (x8 each).
   *   2 slots reserved for future accelerators (e.g., specialized FPGA for protocol parsing).

• **Baseboard Management Controller (BMC):** Dedicated ASPEED AST2600 for full remote hardware control and monitoring, adhering to Redfish API compliance.

2. Performance Characteristics

The NTDRS-4000’s performance is characterized by its ability to handle massive concurrent I/O operations while maintaining rapid graph processing speeds.

2.1 Network Ingestion Benchmarks

Performance testing focused on sustained packet processing without dropping flows, simulating a moderately complex Tier-1 network environment.

Test Environment Setup:

• Traffic Generator: Spirent TestCenter utilizing 4 x 100G ports aggregated.
• Data Profile: Mixed UDP/TCP flows, simulating 70% control plane metadata (BGP/OSPF updates) and 30% high-volume telemetry (gNMI).

Metric	Result (Single 200GbE Link)	Result (Aggregated 4x200GbE)	Target Specification
Sustained Ingress Throughput	198 Gbps (99% Line Rate)	792 Gbps (99% Line Rate)	> 750 Gbps
Flow Record Processing Rate	1.2 Billion Flows/second (CPU utilization 65%)	4.8 Billion Flows/second (CPU utilization 72%)	> 4 Billion Flows/sec
Telemetry Latency (P99)	18 microseconds (End-to-End including RDMA path)	25 microseconds (Due to aggregation overhead)	< 30 microseconds

The performance advantage stems directly from the utilization of RoCEv2 combined with the large L3 cache, allowing flow data to be processed by specialized kernel modules directly in user space memory buffers allocated near the NICs.

2.2 Graph Database Traversal Performance

The primary function of the system is to maintain and query the network topology graph (nodes = devices/interfaces, edges = links/adjacencies). Performance is measured using standard graph database benchmarks (e.g., TPC-G style queries).

• **Database:** Customized implementation utilizing the NVMe RAID 10 array for storage.
• **Query Type:** Breadth-First Search (BFS) across 5 hops in a graph containing 500,000 nodes.

The 2TB of high-speed DDR5 memory is crucial here, allowing the entire active topology graph (nodes + primary edges) to reside in memory, avoiding costly disk access during routine querying.

Query Complexity	NTDRS-4000 Latency (Median)	Previous Generation (DDR4, Dual Xeon Gold)
Single Node Lookup (Keyed)	450 nanoseconds	1.1 microseconds
3-Hop Query (Pathfinding)	3.2 milliseconds	15.8 milliseconds
Full Graph Scan (Read-Only)	78 seconds	4 minutes 12 seconds

The 4.5x improvement in complex pathfinding queries is attributed primarily to the 5600 MT/s DDR5 memory speed and the significant increase in available L3 cache bandwidth.

2.3 Power and Thermal Profile

Due to the high-TDP CPUs and multiple NVMe devices operating at PCIe 5.0 speeds, the power consumption is substantial under peak load.

• **Idle Power Consumption:** Approximately 650W.
• **Peak Load Power Consumption (Stress Test):** 2100W – 2400W (Sustained).

Thermal management requires specialized attention. The system is designed for high-airflow rack environments (minimum 120 CFM per server unit). Thermal throttling is aggressive on the Sapphire Rapids CPUs; sustained loads above 2200W require ambient chassis temperatures below 24°C.

3. Recommended Use Cases

The NTDRS-4000 is an enterprise-grade platform designed for mission-critical network operations where real-time visibility and high-speed data processing are non-negotiable.

3.1 Real-Time Network State Visualization

This configuration excels at dynamically updating a comprehensive map of the entire network fabric.

• **Application:** Centralized Network Operations Centers (NOCs) managing large-scale data centers or carrier backbones.
• **Requirement Met:** The 792 Gbps ingestion capacity ensures that even during periods of high network churn (e.g., rapid link flapping or topology changes), the visualization engine receives updates faster than the physical network converges, preventing stale views. It supports visualization tools that rely on real-time SDN controller APIs and streaming telemetry feedback loops.

3.2 High-Volume Traffic Analysis and Anomaly Detection

The combination of high-speed NICs and powerful CPU vector processing makes it ideal for deep packet inspection (DPI) preprocessing and time-series analysis.

• **Use Case:** Detecting subtle shifts in traffic patterns indicative of DDoS amplification attacks or Zero-Day lateral movement.
• **Mechanism:** Flow data is ingested via RDMA, rapidly hashed and indexed into the volatile buffer, and then processed by AMX instructions on the Xeon CPUs for rapid feature extraction (e.g., entropy calculation, connection entropy analysis).

3.3 Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Configuration Synchronization

For organizations strictly adhering to GitOps principles for network configuration, the NTDRS-4000 serves as the authoritative source of truth for the *current* operational state.

• **Function:** It continuously compares the desired state (from the configuration repository) against the observed state (from telemetry/SNMP polling).
• **Benefit:** The rapid graph traversal performance (Section 2.2) allows for near-instantaneous identification of configuration drift across thousands of devices simultaneously. Reference CMDB synchronization processes.

3.4 Large-Scale Cloud Provider Edge Routing Platforms

In environments where routing tables and service chaining logic are highly dynamic (e.g., multi-tenant cloud fabrics), this server can host the central state machine manager.

• It handles the high volume of BGP updates, EVPN route advertisements, and VXLAN tunnel state synchronization required to keep the physical layer congruent with the virtual overlay. This requires robust handling of control plane convergence events.

4. Comparison with Similar Configurations

To justify the high cost and power consumption of the NTDRS-4000, a comparison against common enterprise alternatives is essential. We compare it against a mainstream high-core server (NTDRS-3000 equivalent) and a specialized FPGA-based appliance (NTDRS-FPGA).

4.1 Feature Comparison Matrix

Feature	NTDRS-4000 (This System)	Mainstream High-Core Server (e.g., Dual Xeon Gold 6448Y)	Specialized FPGA Appliance (Hypothetical)
CPU Cores (Total)	120 (Platinum 8580+)	80 (Gold 6448Y)	4 (Embedded ARM/x86 Management)
Max Ingress Capacity	792 Gbps (Native NICs)	400 Gbps (Requires external aggregation)	600 Gbps (Requires specialized driver integration)
Memory Bandwidth	~900 GB/s (DDR5 5600 MT/s)	~600 GB/s (DDR5 4800 MT/s)	Low (Focus on DP/FPGA memory)
Graph Query Latency (3-Hop)	3.2 ms	15.8 ms	1.5 ms (If data fits on-chip FPGA memory)
Flexibility/Programmability	High (Full OS/DB stack)	High (Standard virtualization)	Low (Requires specialized HDL/firmware updates)
Total Power Draw (Peak)	~2.4 kW	~1.8 kW	~0.8 kW (Excluding external processing units)

4.2 Analysis of Trade-offs

• **Vs. Mainstream High-Core Server:** The NTDRS-4000 offers significantly superior I/O bandwidth (nearly double the usable ingress rate) and memory performance. While the mainstream server might be suitable for static topology monitoring (polling every 5 minutes), the 4000 is necessary for real-time event processing (sub-second reaction time). The increased cost is justified by the elimination of external flow processors or specialized acceleration cards typically needed to match the 4000's raw I/O ceiling.
• **Vs. Specialized FPGA Appliance:** The FPGA offers lower latency for specific, fixed-function tasks (like deterministic packet filtering). However, the NTDRS-4000 runs a full operating system and database stack, allowing for dynamic adaptation to new protocols, schema changes in the topology graph, and integration with standard IT monitoring tools (like Prometheus or Splunk for log correlation). The FPGA requires a complete re-spin for major protocol changes; the 4000 requires only a software patch.

The NTDRS-4000 represents the optimal balance point between raw throughput, general-purpose computational flexibility, and database performance required for modern, dynamic network infrastructure management.

5. Maintenance Considerations

Operating the NTDRS-4000 requires rigorous adherence to specific environmental and procedural standards due to its high component density and power requirements.

5.1 Power Infrastructure Requirements

The system must be deployed in racks provisioned for high-density power draw.

• **Power Supply Units (PSUs):** Dual redundant 2200W 80+ Titanium rated PSUs are standard.
• **Circuitry:** Each server unit requires dedicated 30A circuits (or 20A circuits if running at sustained loads below 1.8kW). Standard 15A circuits are inadequate for peak operation.
• **Power Distribution Unit (PDU):** PDUs must support high-density power monitoring capable of reporting real-time consumption via SNMP or Redfish to ensure adherence to breaker limits.

5.2 Cooling and Airflow Management

High TDP CPUs necessitate aggressive thermal management.

• **Airflow Direction:** Must strictly adhere to front-to-back cooling design. Any recirculation of hot exhaust air back into the intake will cause immediate thermal throttling within 15 minutes under full load.
• **Rack Density:** Deployment should limit the density to 3-4 units per standard 42U rack unless the Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) system confirms cooling capacity exceeds 10kW per rack section.
• **Liquid Cooling Consideration:** While air-cooled, the 8580+ CPUs make this platform a strong candidate for DLC retrofit if deployed in extremely dense high-performance computing (HPC) environments to maintain peak turbo frequencies indefinitely.

5.3 Firmware and Software Lifecycle Management

Maintaining system stability requires a disciplined update schedule, particularly for I/O-intensive components.

• **NIC Firmware:** The 200 GbE NICs (often based on Mellanox/Nvidia ConnectX series) require firmware updates synchronized with the host OS kernel and driver versions. Out-of-sync firmware can lead to unpredictable RDMA transport errors or packet drops under high utilization.
• **BIOS/UEFI:** Updates must be validated against the specific NUMA topology settings. Minor BIOS revisions can sometimes alter memory interleaving behavior, requiring re-validation of the memory mapping policies defined in Section 1.2.
• **OS Patching:** Given the reliance on kernel-level networking stacks for RoCEv2, patching the OS (e.g., RHEL or Ubuntu Server LTS) must be done in a staged environment, as kernel updates frequently introduce changes to the InfiniBand/RDMA transport layers.

5.4 Storage Maintenance

The NVMe RAID 10 array requires proactive monitoring due to the constant high write load from telemetry ingestion.

• **Wear Leveling:** Monitor the **Media Wear Indicator (MWI)** or **Percentage Used Endurance Indicator** for all primary database drives. Drives exceeding 70% endurance utilization should be pre-emptively replaced during scheduled maintenance windows, even if operational health remains nominal. Premature failure in a RAID 10 configuration can lead to significant data loss if the rebuild process itself stresses the remaining drives past their limits.
• **RAID Rebuild Time:** Due to the high capacity (3.84TB drives), a RAID 10 rebuild following a single drive failure can take upwards of 14-18 hours. During this period, the system performance will degrade by approximately 30-40% due to the overhead of parity calculation and mirrored writes. DRP procedures must account for this extended degradation window.

Intel-Based Server Configurations

Configuration	Specifications	Benchmark
Core i7-6700K/7700 Server	64 GB DDR4, NVMe SSD 2 x 512 GB	CPU Benchmark: 8046
Core i7-8700 Server	64 GB DDR4, NVMe SSD 2x1 TB	CPU Benchmark: 13124
Core i9-9900K Server	128 GB DDR4, NVMe SSD 2 x 1 TB	CPU Benchmark: 49969
Core i9-13900 Server (64GB)	64 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe SSD
Core i9-13900 Server (128GB)	128 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe SSD
Core i5-13500 Server (64GB)	64 GB RAM, 2x500 GB NVMe SSD
Core i5-13500 Server (128GB)	128 GB RAM, 2x500 GB NVMe SSD
Core i5-13500 Workstation	64 GB DDR5 RAM, 2 NVMe SSD, NVIDIA RTX 4000

AMD-Based Server Configurations

Configuration	Specifications	Benchmark
Ryzen 5 3600 Server	64 GB RAM, 2x480 GB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 17849
Ryzen 7 7700 Server	64 GB DDR5 RAM, 2x1 TB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 35224
Ryzen 9 5950X Server	128 GB RAM, 2x4 TB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 46045
Ryzen 9 7950X Server	128 GB DDR5 ECC, 2x2 TB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 63561
EPYC 7502P Server (128GB/1TB)	128 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 48021
EPYC 7502P Server (128GB/2TB)	128 GB RAM, 2 TB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 48021
EPYC 7502P Server (128GB/4TB)	128 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 48021
EPYC 7502P Server (256GB/1TB)	256 GB RAM, 1 TB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 48021
EPYC 7502P Server (256GB/4TB)	256 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe	CPU Benchmark: 48021
EPYC 9454P Server	256 GB RAM, 2x2 TB NVMe

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⚠️ *Note: All benchmark scores are approximate and may vary based on configuration. Server availability subject to stock.* ⚠️