FortiGate 120G and 121G fast path architecture
The FortiGate 120G and 121G includes the SOC5 (also called the SP5) and uses the SOC5 CPU, NP7Lite processor, and CP10 content processor. The SOC5 ISF connects all of the FortiGate 120G and 121G front panel data interfaces to the NP7Lite processor.
The FortiGate 120G and 121G features the following front panel interfaces:
- Two 10/100/1000BASE-T Copper (HA, MGMT) connected to the SOC5 CPU.
- Sixteen 10/100/1000BASE-T Copper (1 - 16) connected to the SOC5 integrated switch fabric.
- Four 10 GigE SFP+ interfaces (X1 to X4) connected to the SOC5 integrated switch fabric. These are FortiLink interfaces.
- Eight 1 GigE SFP (17 to 24) connected to the SOC5 integrated switch fabric.
The SOC5 includes an integrated switch fabric (ISF) that connects all of the front panel data interfaces to the NP7Lite processor. The SOC5 ISF allows sessions passing between any FortiGate front panel data interface pair to be offloaded by the NP7Lite processor. The SOC5 ISF also allows you to use the command config system virtual-switch
to create a virtual hardware switch that can include any front panel interface connected to the SOC5.
To add an interface to a hardware switch, its |
The MGMT interface is not connected to the NP7Lite processor. Management traffic passes to the CPU over a dedicated management path that is separate from the data path. You can also dedicate separate CPU resources for management traffic to further isolate management processing from data processing (see Improving GUI and CLI responsiveness (dedicated management CPU)).
The HA interface is also not connected to the NP7Lite processor. To help provide better HA stability and resiliency, HA traffic uses a dedicated physical control path that provides HA control traffic separation from data traffic processing.
The separation of management and HA traffic from data traffic keeps management and HA traffic from affecting the stability and performance of data traffic processing.
You can use the command diagnose npu np7lite port-list
to display the FortiGate 120G or 121G NP7Lite configuration.
diagnose npu np7lite port-list Front Panel Port: Name Max_speed(Mbps) Dflt_speed(Mbps) SW_port_id SW_port_name -------- --------------- ---------------- ---------- ----------- port1 1000 1000 12 ge5 port2 1000 1000 13 ge4 port3 1000 1000 10 ge7 port4 1000 1000 11 ge6 port5 1000 1000 8 ge9 port6 1000 1000 9 ge8 port7 1000 1000 6 ge11 port8 1000 1000 7 ge10 port9 1000 1000 19 ge13 port10 1000 1000 18 ge12 port11 1000 1000 21 ge15 port12 1000 1000 20 ge14 port13 1000 1000 23 ge17 port14 1000 1000 22 ge16 port15 1000 1000 25 ge19 port16 1000 1000 24 ge18 x1 10000 10000 29 xe3 x2 10000 10000 30 xe4 x3 10000 10000 27 xe1 x4 10000 10000 28 xe2 port17 1000 1000 2 ge0 port18 1000 1000 3 ge1 port19 1000 1000 4 ge2 port20 1000 1000 5 ge3 port21 1000 1000 14 ge20 port22 1000 1000 15 ge21 port23 1000 1000 16 ge22 port24 1000 1000 17 ge23 -------- --------------- ---------------- ---------- -----------
The command output also shows the maximum speeds of each interface.
The NP7Lite processor has a bandwidth capacity of 40 Gigabits. You can see from the command output that if all interfaces were operating at their maximum bandwidth the NP7Lite processor would not be able to offload all the traffic.