Isl Transfer Rate Versus Fabric Port Availability (Two-Director Fabric) - HP 316095-B21 - StorageWorks Edge Switch 2/24 Planning Manual

Note:
restrictions, application restrictions, buffer-to-buffer credit limits, and performance
requirements can affect distance requirements.
Table 2: ISL Transfer Rate Versus Fabric Port Availability (Two-Director Fabric)
Number
of ISLs
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
SAN High Availability Planning Guide
— Distance limitations can be increased by using multiple fabric elements.
Each director or switch retransmits received signals, thus performing a
repeater and multiplexer function. Distance limitations can also be
increased by using a variety of local area network (LAN), metropolitan
area network (MAN), or wide area network (WAN) extension
technologies.
Variables such as the number of connections, grade of fiber-optic cable, device
Bandwidth — ISL connections can be used to increase the total bandwidth
available for data transfer between two directors or switches in a fabric.
Increasing the number of ISLs between elements increases the corresponding
total ISL bandwidth but decreases the number of port connections available to
devices. Table 2 illustrates ISL transfer rate versus port availability for a
fabric consisting of two Director 2/64s.
ISL Data Transfer
Rate (at 1.0625 Gbps)
1.0625 Gbps
2.1250 Gbps
3.1875 Gbps
4.2500 Gbps
5.3125 Gbps
6.3750 Gbps
7.4375 Gbps
8.5000 Gbps
Load balancing — Planning consideration must be given to the amount of
data traffic expected through the fabric or through a fabric element. Because
the fabric automatically determines and uses the least cost (shortest) data
transfer path between source and destination ports, some ISL connections
may provide insufficient bandwidth while the bandwidth of other connections
is unused. To optimize bandwidth use and automatically provide dynamic
load balancing across multiple ISLs, consider purchasing and enabling the
Planning Considerations for Fibre Channel Topologies
ISL Data Transfer Rate
(at 2.125 Gbps)
2.1250 Gbps
4.2500 Gbps
6.3750 Gbps
8.5000 Gbps
10.6250 Gbps
12.7500 Gbps
14.8750 Gbps
17.0000 Gbps
Available
Fabric Ports
126
124
122
120
118
116
114
112
83