Chapter 8: Multi-Board Communications Software Design

Overview

Previous chapters covered issues related to communications software design on single-processor and single-board architectures. However, communications systems can be complex, often involving several boards in a chassis and, in some cases, multiple chassis. The software design will need to handle the distributed architecture of a multi-board system. In most development situations, engineers will not be able to maintain multiple baselines for their software-one for the single-board system and another for the multi- board environment. In these cases, it is useful to design the software to be able to work easily in both environments.

This chapter details some common multi-board designs used in communications and details how the software architecture will change for designs. It will also detail the issue of high availability and redundancy as it is commonly used in multi-board systems. As before, the Layer 2/3 switch is used as the example platform for the discussions.