Shared interface scalability

A shared interface is a network resource that

  • allows multiple logical connections to transmit data concurrently,

  • adapts bandwidth allocation based on real-time demand, and

  • enhances scalability to support growing numbers of devices and traffic flows.

Instances can share data-sharing type interfaces. This capability lets you conserve physical interface usage as well as support flexible networking deployments. When you share an interface, the chassis uses unique MAC addresses to forward traffic to the correct instance. However, shared interfaces can cause the forwarding table to grow large due to the need for a full mesh topology within the chassis (every instance must be able to communicate with every other instance that is sharing the same interface). Therefore, there are limits to how many interfaces you can share.

In addition to the forwarding table, the chassis maintains a VLAN group table for VLAN subinterface forwarding. You can create up to 500 VLAN subinterfaces.

See the following limits for shared interface allocation: