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FireBrick FB9000

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The FireBrick FB9000 is the latest instalment in a story of research and development spanning more than two decades. It replaces the FB6000, and is an improvement over that model in every way. It is both more capable, and available at a lower price.

FB9000-prototype-front.original-trans

Available to Order

Please contact your FireBrick dealer or Email us directly if you are interested in the FB9000.

Example Scenarios

Internet Provider

Multi-Gigabit L2TP LNS with detailed monitoring of all lines - ideal for BT WMBC, TalkTalk Business, Zen, FluidOne or other wholesale operators including FTTP from alt-nets such as CityFibre.

Our unique Constant Quality Monitoring with detailed loss/latency/throughput graphs for every line, every second, are invaluable for support and diagnostics.

Learn more

Large Office

Multi-Gigabit stateful firewall handling hundreds of VLANs, traffic shaping and firewall rules. Ideal as a flexible router for locations with multiple internet connections and separate physical LNSs requiring routing and firewalling services.

Learn more

BGP

Multi-Gigabit BGP router capable of handling multiple transit feeds and hundreds of peers and full IPv6 support.

Learn more

e2e Monitoring

High capacity ping monitoring box (the latest version of the FireBrick technology used by ThinkBroadband). Ping tens of thousands of endpoints every second and produce details loss/latency graphs in real time.

Learn more

Brief Overview

Key Physical Features

  • Two SFP+ ports, for 10G connectivity (e.g. WAN)
  • Eight SFP ports, for 8x1G connectivity (e.g. LANs)
  • Dual power supplies, front or rear facing for ease of cabling
  • USB port for special functions (dongle, etc)
  • RJ45 serial console port
  • Robust & compact 1U 19" rack-mount enclosure
  • Two rear-exhausting temperature-controlled fans
  • Front or rear attached rack ears (in three depth position options)

Key Operating Features

The feature-set and configuration options allow the FB9000 to be used in a wide range of scenarios, such as:

  • LNS - terminate DSL tails from wholesale carriers
  • PPPoE server - terminate FTTP services from 'alt-nets'
  • Firewall - router/firewall for 10G office connectivity and 8 separate 1G links
  • BGP router - multiple full-table routing including IPv6
  • Ping monitoring - Graph/log loss & latency for 100,000s of endpoints

The FireBrick Philosophy

  • Designed, made, coded and supported in the UK
  • Very low power consumption
  • Built to last
  • Lifetime free software updates
  • 5 year warranty

Pricing & Availability

Pricing

The recommended retail price of the FB9000 is £7500+VAT.

You are able to purchase direct from Andrews & Arnold Ltd or one of our Partners.

Beautifully engineered CNC milled aluminium chassis

Right

Front

Left

Rack mounting

Flexible rack mount options

FB9000-prototype-~1049

A choice of six positions for the rack ears

Rack ears can be mounted at the front or rear. On each side there are screw holes enabling three depth positions. The front of the FB9000 can be flush or can be set back into the rack, which can help with door clearance and cable/fibre bends inside racks.

Note: A TORX T10 screwdriver is required to move/remove the rack ears.

PSU Positions

Front or rear PSU position options

FB9000-prototype-~355 1

Probably unique to the FB9000, on order you can request the PSUs to be front or rear mounted.

Mounted at the front will mean network and power connectors will all be on the front side of the unit. If your rack power feeds are going to be easier or tidier at the rear of the FB9000 then ask for rear mounted PSUs.

Each PSU has an LED, both front and rear, to show whether it is active or not.

One Model

One Model.

Flexible Configuration.

Use the features when you need them,
as you need them.

Need your unit to do a little bit of everything? That's possible! Want it focused on a specific task? Also no problem!

For example, running as an LNS would typically have the Firewall disabled - this ensures there is no session tracking being performed so as to maximise overall performance for 10Gb/s operation.

Upgrading from a FB6000

FB6000 to FB9000 = easy.

If you are already running FB6000s then the FB9000 provides an easy upgrade path with next to no re-training required.

The configuration and feature-set between the FB6000 and FB9000 is near identical*. In most cases the XML configuration from a FB6000 or a FB2900 can be pasted in to a FB9000 with minor changes - typically relating to the port configuration.

*There are some features that are not yet available on the FB9000 but the software is always being updated. The main difference is the ports and speed/performance.

Performance - Throughput

Two 10G SFP+ Ports

FB9000-prototype-~sfpplus

Typical use:

  • Use as a resilient pair - configured as LACP to two separate (stacked) switches -eg as an LNS to terminate PPPoE/L2TP
  • Connect one to your 10G Internet provider, the other to your LAN's 10G switch, use firewall and traffic shaping features to manage your connection
  • In a Datacentre to connect to a Transit provider or Exchange Point - Establish BGP sessions between your core and the 3rd parties
  • Note: Actual throughput across both 10G SFP+ ports can not be above 10G. There are two ports to enable resiliency.

Eight 1G SFP ports

FB9000-prototype-~8sfp

Typical use:

  • If 10G is your main connection, then the 1G ports can be used for out-of-band access.
  • Connect to 1G internet/transit providers.
  • Connect to physically separated networks - eg multi-tenant situations.
  • The FB9000 is capable of more than 10Gbit of total combined throughput in many configuration situations. The actual maximum throughput will depend on your setup though.

Power, Cooling, Orientation

Power

In fully populated tests, the maximum power consumption is around 40W. In real-world use the power consumption is usually much less and depends on accessories and load.

  • Fans: 8.5W (at full speed).
  • SFP ports: up to 1W each (DACs are low, RJ45 can be higher).
  • NVMe: 2W (idle) - not usually fitted.
  • USB: 0.5W (idle), 1W during our tests.

Cooling

Dual exhaust fans on the rear. These are temperature controlled and will only be on when required. Status can be seen on the web interface and via SNMP.

Orientation

Upon order, the Orientation of the two power inlet ports can be chosen - either front (in line with the SFP ports) or rear.

(one of each is theoretically possible but not recommended for safety reasons).

Support

Manuals

PDF and HTML manuals can be viewed from the manuals page.

Software

Software updates are free of charge. You would usually upgrade via the FireBrick's web interface. You can download manually from the software page. You can set automatic updates if you wish, with specific time windows.

Assistance

The FireBrick team are able to provide support contracts and training.

Using an FB9000

XML or Web-UI Config

XML config file is the 'source of truth' and the web editor manipulates the XML in a browser to give a GUI experience. The XSD is published, and the XML therefore allows scripted or machine generated configuration.

Management Access

As well as the serial console port, with eight 1G ports, one or more can be used to connect to a separate 'Management LAN' for out-of-band access to the FireBrick's HTTP and Telnet interfaces. VLANs are supported on all ports and could be used for management access as well.

Access Control

Multiple user levels exist, and there can be multiple users defined, each with their own IP-based control lists and 2FA. Individual services (eg HTTP/Telnet) have IP access lists and can be restricted to particular routing tables, independent of firewall rules. Access controls can be set on systems that do not run firewalling (e.g. for performance).

FB9000-prototype-front.original-trans

Case Studies

Case Study

FB2900 & FB6202 in an ISP

Read more
Case Study

Tunnel Bonding at ISP level

Read more

More examples of using FireBrick can be read on our Case Study page. Also see what makes FireBrick stand out from other routers on our 'Niche' page.

Design & Manufacture

Made in the UK

The FireBrick is invented, designed, engineered, prototyped and manufactured in the UK. The printed circuit boards are populated and soldered in Newbury. The metalwork is formed and finished/treated/coated in facilities in High Wycombe and West London. Final assembly is done in Wokingham.

This closeness of manufacturing resources means a very high level of oversight can be achieved, with FireBrick staff able to (and do) physically visit and inspect production whilst it is in progress. Ultimately this improves the quality of the finished product.

All software development on FireBrick firmware is also done by directly employed staff, physically located in the UK.

Made from the ground up

The FireBrick is a completely custom piece of equipment, in every regard. We control...

  • Every component selection and design choice in the circuitry...
  • Every track on the PCB...
  • Every bend radius and surface finish in the metalwork...
  • Every line of code in the firmware, including building an operating system from the ground up with device drivers and IP stack...

The FireBrick's hardware platform is not used in any other devices and the FireBrick's codebase / firmware is not used in any other hardware.

Feature List

A non exhaustive list - and we expect to add features over time.

...


Basic Networking:

  • Multiple subnets per interface
  • VLAN
  • DHCP server
  • VRRP
  • NAT, NAT-PMP and PCP
  • IPv4, IPv6

Routing:

  • Multiple routing tables
  • Static routes
  • BGP

Services:

  • HTTP, HTTPS
  • Telnet
  • NTP server & client
  • RADIUS (steering)
  • DNS
  • ACME Certificate management
  • BRAS

Tunnels:

  • L2TP
  • PPPoE
  • EtherIP
  • IPSec IKEv2
  • FB105 (proprietary)

Firewall

  • Extensive rule-based

Profiles

  • Comprehensible rule system can impact almost any aspect of the config based on tests ranging from simple time/date to PPP links up/down or routeability to an IP. Allows wide range of automatic fallback and config changes to meet any contingency.

Shaping

  • Ad-hoc
  • Long term adaptive (e.g. long term average targets with allows short term bursts)

Graph (CQM)

  • Throughput/loss/latency graphed
  • to IP address
  • for interfaces
  • for PPP connections (PPPoE and L2TP)

Monitoring/Logging

  • Flexible logging options
  • Syslog
  • Email
  • SNMP
  • PCAP
  • SFLOW

Other

  • CQM Graphing
  • RGB Status LED - configurable
  • Bonding/load sharing rules
  • No SFP vendor tie-in
  • Fast boot/reboot time (seconds)

Future

  • Free software updates including new features - e.g. VoIP server at a later date.

FAQ

The FB9000 aims to work with any SFP/SFP+ module.

In practice we've tested and used 1G copper and 1G and 10G optical, BiDi and DAC modules from different manufactures, including Solid Optics and Flexoptix.

The port status page will display readings from the SFP module, for example, this image is from a Flexoptix module:

fb9000-sfp-status

The serial port is a RJ45 socket, and the pin layout is the same as most Cisco equipment, and most generic USB to RJ45 console cables work. 115,200 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bits, No parity, no flow control.

The pin layout is as follows:

1 RTS
2 DTR
3 TXD
4 GND
5 GND
6 RXD
7 DSR
8 CTS

The manuals are a good place to start to find our more information.

Product safety and key data

Manufacturer FireBrick Ltd
Model FB9000
Safety Standard BS EN IEC 62368‐1:2020+A11:2020
Rated Power 100-240V 50-60Hz 40W Class I, Dual supply
Max humidity Operating: 90% RH (non condensing) Storage: 95% RH
Temperature Operating: 0 to 50°C Storage: -40 to +85°C
Altitude Operating: 2000m
Dimensions Width 440mm (without rack brackets); Height 43mm; Depth 215mm Rack brackets to fit 19" rack
Weight 3.1kg (without SFPs or power cables)

Note that this product uses components rated to work 85-275V 47-440Hz, and will typically use under 30W even fully loaded with SFP modules.


caution1

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Sales & Dealer Enquiries

email sales@firebrick.co.uk
phone 01344 400 500
Mon - Fri, 9am-5pm,
calls are recorded
sms 01344 400 500

Support Contact

email support@firebrick.co.uk
phone 01344 400 500
Mon-Fri 9am-5pm,
calls are recorded
sms 01344 400 500

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