Spanning Tree; Etherchannel Compatible Link Aggregation; Internet Group Management Protocol; Data Storm Prevention - HP 279720-B21 - ProLiant BL p-Class F-GbE Interconnect Overview

Switch VLANs may span other switches that support 802.1Q tagging located within the network
infrastructure.

Spanning tree

The GbE Interconnect Switch meets the IEEE 802.1D spanning tree protocol (STP). Users can
configure STP switch parameters, including priority and cost, on a per port basis. Each interconnect
switch can automatically find the STP root bridge on the network. Otherwise, the interconnect switch
will act as the root bridge for the STP domain.
For networks designed without loops or individual switch ports connected to server blades or other
devices where a loop does not exist, the GbE Interconnect permits STP to be:
Disabled on a per switch or per port basis.
Placed in a bypass mode (Cisco PortFast equivalent) on a per port basis allowing a port to skip the
standard STP modes and enable itself directly in the forwarding state.

EtherChannel compatible link aggregation

The GbE Interconnect Switch complies with IEEE 802.3ad static link aggregation (excluding LACP
compatible with Cisco EtherChannel (Fast EtherChannel, Gigabit EtherChannel). Each GbE
Interconnect Switch supports six multi-port trunks with up to eight ports per trunk.

Internet group management protocol

The GbE Interconnect Switch provides internet group management protocol (IGMP) snooping v1 and
v2, configurable to a non-querier mode. The IGMP state may be enabled and disabled on a per
VLAN basis as well as a configurable response report delay and query interval. The GbE Interconnect
Switch allows a maximum of 191 concurrent multicast groups (127 dynamically learned by IGMP, 64
static multicast).

Data storm prevention

The GbE Interconnect Switch permits configurable thresholds (in packets per second) to prevent three
types of packet storms: broadcast, multicast, and destination address (DA) unknown. If the threshold is
exceeded, any additional packets received would be dropped.

Quality of service

Support for quality of service (QoS) IEEE 802.1p on the GbE Interconnect Switch allows switch
administrators to set priority levels on each switch for forwarding packets. Each switch supports four
classes of traffic (buffers or queues) for implementing priority based on the priority tag of the packet.
Administrators can map up to eight priority levels to four classes. Traffic from a specific server port
can be given priority over packets from other devices according to this range of priority levels. For
example, with multiple packets in a buffer, the packet with the highest priority would be forwarded
first, regardless of when it was received.

Enterprise-class performance

The GbE Interconnect Switch includes the following performance features:
Nonblocking, full wire speed on all ports.
9.6 Gb/s external port bandwidth per server blade enclosure (full duplex).
7.2 million packets per second maximum external port frame forwarding throughput per server
blade enclosure (64-byte packets).
8,191 MAC addresses per switch with automatic MAC address learning.
Link Aggregation Control Protocol.
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