Alcatel Carrier Internetworking Solutions 6600 - Manual (Page 3)

Alcatel’s fixed configuration switches are part of the Alcatel enterprise LAN offering that includes the larger
capacity, modular-based OmniSwitch 7700, 7800, and 8800 series of core switches. Together this family
offers a complete edge-to-core solution with high availability, intelligent performance, and enhanced security
in an easy to manage, flexible, and scalable package.
Alcatel understands the need to control service costs and provides a limited lifetime warranty on all
OmniSwitch 6600 family switches.
Virtual Chassis
What is a virtual chassis? Essentially, a virtual chassis takes the best attributes of a modular chassis switch
and applies them to lower cost fixed configuration switches, allowing the enterprise to manage and scale
their network effectively and affordably. With the addition of the OS6602 a virtual chassis can consist of up
to eight switches of either the OS6602, the OS6600 or a mix of both.
The virtual chassis provides:
• single IP address management
• easy synchronization of switch software and configurations across all switches within a single stack
• dedicated fault tolerant backplane using hardware stacking
• link aggregation across chassis
• N:1 management backup because each switch is fully capable of providing management for the
virtual chassis
When a group of OS6600/OS6602 switches are configured in a virtual chassis, an automatic election
takes place to elect the primary and secondary management entity. If the primary or secondary switch fail,
recurrent automatic elections take place for their replacement.
Another great benefit of the virtual chassis is that it can be very quickly and simply scaled up, torn down or
reconfigured to suit the needs of the enterprise.
High Availability
The OS6602/OS6600 support cost effective 1:1 backup power supplies, fault tolerant loop stacking, and
virtual chassis link aggregation preventing single points of failure. Any switch within a virtual chassis that
provides management functionality and automatic election of primary and secondary managers provides N:1
management redundancy.
Quality of service in the network addresses availability by ensuring mission critical applications, such as IP
telephony and other delay sensitive applications, receive the expedited forwarding they require to be
available and effective. The OS6600 family supports per port queuing, flow-based QoS rules and bandwidth
management to help guarantee mission applications are available.
Alcatel OmniSwitch 6600 Family
A L C AT E L 3 >