Cisco MDS 9506 Specification Sheet page 2

Each Supervisor-2 Module provides the
necessary crossbar bandwidth to
deliver full system performance in the
Cisco MDS 9506 director with up to
four Fibre Channel switching modules.
It is designed to eliminate the impact on
system performance of the loss or
removal of a single crossbar module.
Connectivity, compatibility and traffic
management
The Cisco MDS 9506 for IBM System
Storage requires a minimum of one and
allows a maximum of four switching
modules. These modules are available
in either a 12-, 24- and 48-port 4 Gbps
configurations, allowing the Cisco MDS
9506 to support 12 to 192 Fibre
Channel ports per chassis. Optionally, a
4-port 10 Gbps Fibre Channel module
is available for high performance inter-
switch link (ISL) connections over metro
optical networks.
Switching modules are hot-swappable
with small form-factor pluggable (SFP)
optic transceivers and support LC inter-
faces. The PortChannel capability
allows users to aggregate up to
16 physical Inter-Switch Links into a
single logical bundle, providing opti-
mized bandwidth utilization across all
links.
12-, 24- and 48-port switching modules:
Configuring the switch for the application
environment
The 12-port 4 Gbps Fibre Channel
switching module is designed to
deliver high performance for the most
demanding storage networking applica-
tions. Autosensing 1, 2 and 4 Gbps
ports deliver up 96 Gbps of continuous
aggregate bandwidth, which provides
up to 8 Gbps throughput per port. The
12-port switching module is well suited
for attaching highest-performance
4 Gbps enabled servers and storage
subsystems as well as to connect to
other switches using 4 Gbps ISL
connections.
The 24-port 4 Gbps Fibre Channel
switching module is designed for
high performance storage networking
applications. Twenty-four autosensing
1, 2 and 4 Gbps ports are designed
deliver sustained bandwidth required to
meet the performance requirements of
enterprise-class storage and servers.
Port bandwidth reservation enables
1, 2 or 4 Gbps switching bandwidth to
be dedicated to a port, including high-
est performance ISL ports. The 24-port
switching module is well suited for
attaching high performance servers and
storage subsystems as well as for con-
necting to other switches using ISL
connections.
The 48-port 4 Gbps Fibre Channel
switching module is designed to
deliver an optimal balance of perform-
ance and port density. Forty-eight
autosensing 1, 2 and 4 Gbps ports are
designed deliver sustained bandwidth
required to meet a wide range perform-
ance requirements for a mixture of SMB