Technical Tips: Availability of Ultra Low Latency (ULL) Port on FortiGate hardware models

Description

This article describes the availability of ultra-low latency (ULL) ports on FortiGate hardware models.

Scope

FortiGate NP7 hardware model.

Solution

Ultra-low-latency (ULL) ports are physical interfaces that connect directly to the network processor (NP) to bypass the FortiGate Integrated Switch Fabric (ISF) that sits between the NP and interface panel. The purpose of bypassing the integrated switch fabric is to minimize the per-packet latency. ULL ports are generally ports x5-x8 on the FortiGate if it is available.

Management and HA ports are always connected to the CPU directly, regardless of the NP architecture. ULL ports, on the other hand, can only be supported in some of the FortiGate models that have been equipped with NP7 architecture. FortiGate models equipped with NP6/NP6Xlite/NP6lite models do not support ULL ports.

Among the FortiGate (NP7 architecture) that have been equipped with ULL ports are as follows:

• FortiGate 400F/401F.

• FortiGate 600F/601F.

• FortiGate 900G/901G.

To verify if the FortiGate hardware model has ULL ports equipped, refer to Hardware Acceleration, navigate to the NP model that the FortiGate is equipped with, and verify the fast path architecture. The sample below illustrates the access to FortiGate 400F/401F fast path architecture: