Brocade BigIron RX Series Configuration Guide - Manual (Page 602)

524 BigIron RX Series Configuration Guide
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Multi-Chassis Trunking overview
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Benefits of MCT
The benefits of MCT are as follows:
• Provides link-level and switch-level redundancy.
• Provides increased capacity by using all the links (including the redundant ones) for traffic
transport. This contrasts with the use of the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), which does not use
redundant links for traffic transport.
• Provides traffic restoration in tens of milliseconds in case of link or switch failures.
• Allows servers and switches to use standard LAG (802.3ad) to connect to the redundant
switches.
• Allows easy deployment of MCT while enhancing the existing multilayer switching without
changing the fundamental architecture.
How MCT works
Figure 90 shows the MCT architecture. MCT consists of two MCT peer switches connected through
an ICL, which is a single-port or multi-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) interface. The two MCT peer
switches act as a single logical switch with MCT clients (access switches or servers) connected
through an IEEE 802.3ad link across the MCT pair. With the MCT pair acting as a single logical
switch, a loop-free topology and fast link recovery are achieved, thereby eliminating the need for
STP.
As the MCT protocol is based on a standard LAG, the client nodes are transparent to the MCT
protocol, which supports any third-party vendor device that uses LAG. By deploying the BigIron RX
devices with MCT, you can achieve network simplicity and higher resiliency with the efficient use of
all network links.
The MCT provides the following support:
• Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding (when using fast-path forwarding feature) at the first hop
regardless of the Extended Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP-E) state.
• Flow-based load balancing rather than Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) sharing across
network links.
• Sub-second failover in the event of a link, module, switch fabric, control plane, or node failure
at the physical level .
• Network resiliency regardless of the traffic type: Layer 3, Layer 2, or non-IP (legacy) protocols.
• Interaction with Metro Ring Protocol (MRP) to build larger resilient Layer 2 domains.
• Node redundancy in addition to link and modular redundancy.
• Enhancement to LAG groups.