RTL8370NI-VB-CG

The RTL8370NI-VB-CG is an LQFP128 E-PAD, high-performance 8-port Gigabit Ethernet switch. The
RTL8370NI-VB features low-power integrated 8-port Giga-PHYs that support 1000Base-T, 100Base-T,
and 10Base-T.
The embedded packet storage SRAM in the RTL8370NI-VB features superior memory management
technology to efficiently utilize memory space. The RTL8370NI-VB integrates a 4096-entry look-up
table with a 4-way XOR Hashing algorithm for address searching and learning. The table provides
read/write access from the Slave I2C-like interface or Slave MII Management interface, and each of the
entries can be configured as a static entry. The entry aging time is between 200 and 400 seconds. Sixteen
Filtering Databases are used to provide Independent VLAN Learning and Shared VLAN Learning
(IVL/SVL) functions.
The RTL8370NI-VB supports standard 802.3x flow control frames for full duplex, and optional
backpressure for half duplex. It determines when to invoke the flow control mechanism by checking the
availability of system resources, including the packet buffers and transmitting queues. The RTL8370NIVB supports broadcast/multicast output dropping, and will forward broadcast/multicast packets to nonblocked ports only. For IP multicast applications, the RTL8370NI-VB can forward IPv4 IGMPv1/v2/v3
and IPv6 MLDv1/v2 snooping protocol packets.
In order to support flexible traffic classification, the RTL8370NI-VB supports 96-entry ACL rule check
and multiple actions options. Each port can optionally enable or disable the ACL rule check function. The
ACL rule key can be based on packet physical port, Layer2, Layer3, and Layer4 information. When an
ACL rule matches, the action taken is configurable to Drop/Permit/Redirect/Mirror, change priority value
in 802.1q/Q tag, and rate policing. The rate policing mechanism supports from 8Kbps to 1Gbps (in 8Kbps
steps).
In Bridge operation the RTL8370NI-VB supports 16 sets and four statuses: disable, block, learning, and
forwarding for Spanning Tree Protocol and Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol.
To meet security and management application requirements, the RTL8370NI-VB supports IEEE 802.1x
Port-based/MAC-based Access Control. For those ports that do not pass IEEE 802.1x authentication, the
RTL8370NI-VB provides a Port-based/MAC-based Guest VLAN function for them to access limited
network resources. A 1-set Port Mirroring function is configured to mirror traffic (RX, TX, or both)
appearing on one of the switch’s ports. Support is provided on each port for multiple RFC MIB Counters,
for easy debug and diagnostics.
To improve real-time or multimedia networking applications, the RTL8370NI-VB supports eight priority
assignments for each received packet. These are based on (1) Port-based priority; (2) 802.1p/Q VLAN tag
priority; (3) DSCP field in IPv4/IPv6 header; and (4) ACL-assigned priority; (5) CVLAN-based priority;
(6) SVLAN-based priority; and (7) SMAC-based/LUTFWD-based priority. Each output port supports a weighted ratio of eight priority queues to fit bandwidth requirements in different applications. The input bandwidth control function helps limit per-port traffic utilization. There is one leaky bucket for average packet rate control for each queue of all ports. Queue scheduling algorithm can use Strict Priority (SP) or Weighted Fair Queue (WFQ) or mixed.
The RTL8370NI-VB provides a 4096-entry VLAN table for 802.1Q port-based, tag-based, and protocolbased VLAN operation to separate logical connectivity from physical connectivity. The RTL8370NI-VB supports four Protocol-based VLAN configurations that can optionally select EtherType, LLC, and
RFC1042 as the search key. Each port may be set to any topology.
In embedded system applications, CPU may want to know the input port of the incoming packet. The RTL8370NI-VB supports an option to insert a VLAN tag with VID=Port VID (PVID) on each egress port.
The RTL8370NI-VB also provides an option to admit VLAN tagged packets with a specific PVID only.
If this function is enabled, the RTL8370NI-VB will drop all non-tagged packets and packets with an incorrect PVID.