Lan Interface - Intel S2600CO Family Technical Product Specification

Platform Management Functional Overview
6.10.3

LAN interface

The BMC implements both the IPMI 1.5 and IPMI 2.0 messaging models. These provide out-of-
band local area network (LAN) communication between the BMC and the network.
See the Intelligent Platform Management Interface Specification Second Generation v2.0 for
details about the IPMI-over-LAN protocol.
Run-time determination of LAN channel capabilities can be determined by both standard IPMI
defined mechanisms.
6.10.3.1 RMCP/Alert Standard Forum (ASF Messaging)
The BMC supports RMCP ping discovery in which the BMC responds with a pong message to
an RMCP/ASF ping request. This is implemented per the Intelligent Platform Management
Interface Specification Second Generation v2.0.
6.10.3.2 BMC LAN Channels
The BMC supports three RMII/RGMII ports that can be used for communicating with Ethernet
devices. Two ports are used for communication with the on-board NICs and one is used for
communication with an Ethernet PHY located on an optional RMM4 add-in module.
6.10.3.2.1 Baseboard NICs
The on-board Ethernet controller provides support for a Network Controller Sideband Interface
(NC-SI) manageability interface. This provides a sideband high-speed connection for
manageability traffic to the BMC while still allowing for a simultaneous host access to the OS is
desired.
The NC-SI is a DMTF industry standard protocol for the side band management LAN interface.
This protocol provides a fast multi-drop interface for management traffic.
The baseboard NIC(s) are connected to a single BMC RMII/RGMII port that is configured for
RMII operation. The NC-SI protocol is used for this connection and provides a 100 Mb/s full-
duplex multi-drop interface which allows multiple NICs to be connected to the BMC. The
physical layer is based upon RMII, however RMII is a point-to-point bus whereas NC-SI allows 1
master and up to 4 slaves. The logical layer (configuration commands) is incompatible with RMII.
The server board will provide support for a dedicated management channel that can be
configured to be hidden from the host and only used by the BMC. This mode of operations is
configured from a BIOS setup option.
6.10.3.2.2 Dedicated Management Channel
An additional LAN channel dedicated to BMC usage and not available to host SW is supported
by an optional RMM4 add-in card. There is only a PHY device present on the RMM4 add-in card.
The BMC has a built-in MAC module that uses the RGMII interface to link with the card's PHY.
Therefore, for this dedicated management interface, the PHY and MAC are located in different
devices.
The PHY on the RMM4 connects to the BMC's other RMII/RGMII interface (i.e. the one that is
not connected to the baseboard NICs). This BMC port is configured for RGMII usage.
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Intel order number G42278-002
Intel® Server Board S2600CO Family TPS
Revision 1.0