CME Group plans GLink infrastructure upgrade at Aurora Co-Location Facility
CME Group has unveiled its plans to upgrade the GLink network infrastructure at its Co-Location Facility in Aurora, IL for futures and options markets over several weekends in the second quarter of 2021.
The network upgrade will include the installation of new hardware equipment. As part of this upgrade, no changes are expected for spine and leaf architecture, customer cross-connects, nor for GLink demarcations in customer cabinets. The architecture of the upgraded platform will be similar to the existing architecture: a Layer 3 network in a leaf and spine configuration.
The GLink network infrastructure upgrade will consist of Spine upgrades over 2 weekends followed by hot cuts of the A and B GLink switches on the dates provided in the Key Events and Dates section below. A rebalance of GLink ports is currently planned to be executed approximately 3 weeks after the GLink network infrastructure upgrade has completed.
Currently, GLink services are spread over 11 pairs of switches. The upgraded platform will include 12 pairs of switches with 11 switches going into production on day one. Customers’ GLink ports will be migrated from the existing 11 switch pairs to the 11 new switch pairs, keeping each customer’s switch assignment the same (e.g., an existing port on switch 3 will be migrated to a port on switch 3 of the new platform).
On the first cut-over weekend, ports connected to B feed services will be migrated. On the second weekend, ports connected to A feed services will be migrated. This will ensure a one for one migration from the existing 11 switch pairs to the upgraded 11 switch pairs and requires no changes of customer cross connects. Customer switch assignments and configurations will be similar to their existing GLink services.
Existing customer GLink services will be migrated by CME Group to the upgraded GLink platform over two weekends:
- Saturday, April 17: B Feed GLink
- Saturday, May 1: A Feed GLink
Customers’ existing equidistant cross connects will be used to connect to the upgraded GLink platform.
Scheduled for May 22, the 12th switch pair will be put into service in conjunction with the rebalancing of GLink services from 11 to 12 switch pairs. GLink services will be distributed equally across all upgraded switch pairs and customers with multiple GLink services will have their services distributed equally across the upgraded platform.
On the A and B Feed leaf switch migration weekends, GLink ports will be moved from the legacy switches to the upgraded switches. Customers’ existing equidistant cross connects will be used to connect to the upgraded GLink platform.
Customer testing and certification will be done on Saturdays after the upgraded equipment is put into service. CME Group strongly recommends that all customers test their connectivity prior to the upgraded equipment going into production.