Brocade Communications Systems Extension Switch 7800 - Manual (Page 13)

Brocade 7800 Extension Switch Hardware Reference Manual 1
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Chapter
1
I ntroducing the Brocade 7800 Extension Switch
In this chapter
• “Overview of Brocade 7800 Extension Switch” next
• “Port side of the Brocade 7800” on page 4
• “Nonport side of the Brocade 7800” on page 5
• “Brocade 7800 management” on page 5
Overview of Brocade 7800 Extension Switch
The Brocade 7800 Extension Switch is intended as a platform for Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP). This
enables transmission of Fibre Channel data over long distances via IP networks by wrapping Fibre
Channel frames in IP packets. Each end of the FCIP communication path must be a compatible
FCIP device, either the Brocade 7800 or the FX8-24 blade in a DCX-family chassis.
A minimum level of Brocade Fabric Operating System (FOS) 6.3 is required to use the Brocade
7800.
Refer to the Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide for information on configuring these features.
The base model of the switch is shipped with six Fibre Channel SFP ports and two physical Gigabit
Ethernet (GbE) ports active. It includes FOS 6.3 and is compatible with the entire Brocade switch
family. It can operate independently or in a fabric containing multiple Extension Switches.
A fully licensed Brocade 7800 provides the following functionality features:
• FCIP capability
• Up to 8 FCIP tunnels.
• Each FCIP tunnel is represented and managed as a virtual Fibre Channel E_Port (VE_Port).
• Fibre Channel Routing Services functionality can be used over the FCIP link.
• Fabrics connected through FCIP merge if the ports are configured as VE_Ports, and do not
merge if one end of the connection is configured as a VEx_Port. If VE_Ports are used in a
Fibre Channel Routing Services backbone fabric configuration, then the backbone fabric
merges but the Ex_Port attached to edge fabrics do not merge. For more information see
the Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide.
• FCIP Trunking with load balancing and network-based failure recovery
• Adaptive Rate Limiting
• Configurable maximum and minimum committed bandwidth per FCIP tunnel
• Minimum rate is guaranteed rate
• FC frame compression before FCIP encapsulation
• Fibre Channel Routing
• SO-TCP with reorder resistance