Intrepid 6064 Director - McDATA StorageWorks 2/140 - Director Switch Planning Manual

Introduction to McDATA Multi-Protocol Products
1
Intrepid 6064
Director
McDATA Products in a SAN Environment - Planning Manual
1-8
— A multiswitch fabric topology provides the ability to connect
directors (and other McDATA switch elements) through
expansion ports (E_Ports) and interswitch links (ISLs) to form
a Fibre Channel fabric. Director elements receive data from a
device and, based on the destination N_Port address, route
the data through the fabric (and possibly through multiple
switch elements) to the destination device.
— An arbitrated loop topology connects multiple device node
loop (NL_Ports) in a loop (or hub) configuration without
benefit of a multiswitch fabric. Although directors do not
support direct connection of arbitrated loop devices, such
devices can communicate with directors through Sphereon-
series fabric switches.
• Multiple service class support - The Fibre Channel signaling
protocol provides several classes of transmission service that
support framing protocol and flow control between ports.
Directors support:
— Class 2 transmission service that provides connectionless
multiplexed frame delivery service with acknowledgment.
Class 2 service is best suited for mainstream computing
applications.
— Class 3 transmission service that provides connectionless,
best-effort multiplexed datagram frame delivery with no
acknowledgment. Class 3 service is best suited for mass
storage or video applications.
— Class F transmission service that is used by multiple directors
(or fabric elements) to communicate across ISLs to configure,
control, and coordinate the behavior of a multiswitch fabric.
The Intrepid 6064 Director is a second-generation, enterprise-class
product that provides switched fabric connectivity for up to 64 Fibre
Channel devices. The product provides high-performance scalable
bandwidth, highly-available operation, redundant switched data
paths, long transmission distances (up to 20 km), and high device
population. Figure 1-2 illustrates the director.