Grass Valley Fibre Channel Switch v.5.8 - Manual (Page 8)

8 Fibre Channel Switch Installation Manual 15 July 2006
Installing a Switch in a Profile Video Network
Compared to a Fibre Channel hub, the Fibre Channel 4 Gbit/sec switch improves the
performance of your Video Network by:
• Increasing the bandwidth between any two Fibre Channel devices by eliminating
the shared bandwidth required by a Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop.
• Improving the scalability of your Video Network. By managing your inter-switch
connections, you can increase the size of your network without the shared
bandwidth concerns of a large loop.
• Providing optional multicast capability, which lets you move material to several
machines at once, rather than with several individual transfers.
Figure 0-1 shows the Profile Fibre Channel switch in a simple fabric environment.
Figure 0-1. The Profile XP Fibre Channel 4 Gbit/sec Switch
Profile System Software Requirements
All Profile XP System Software versions fully support the Profile Fibre Channel
Switch. Be sure to read the Profile XP Release Notes to learn about any new
requirements.
All versions of Profile XP Fibre Channel boards have the required firmware for
operation with the Profile Fibre Channel Switch. You do not need to change the Fibre
Channel firmware or drivers on Profile XP systems.
Bear in mind the following considerations when setting up your Brocade switch for
use with Profile systems:
• You do not need to set the Fibre Channel hardware address of Profile systems
Profile XP Media Platform
Profile XP Media Platform
Profile XP Media Platform
Profile XP Media Platform
Profile XP Media Platform
Profile XP Media Platform
Profile XP Media Platform