SB2A-16A Qlogic Corporation, SB2A-16A Datasheet - Page 39

• Manufacturer Part Number: SB2A-16A
• Description: Development Tools, SANbox 16-port Switch
• Manufacturer: Qlogic Corporation

3.2.2
Common Topologies
3.2.2.1
Cascade Topology
59021-06 A
The SANbox2-16 switch supports three commonly used fabric topologies:
A cascade topology describes a fabric in which the switches are connected in
series. If you connect the last switch back to the first switch, you create a
cascade-with-a-loop topology as shown in
because any switch can route traffic in the shortest direction to any switch in the
loop. The loop also provides failover should a switch fail.
The cascade fabric shown in
Cascade
Mesh
Multistage®
Each chassis link contributes up to 200 MB/s of bandwidth between chassis,
400 MB/s in full duplex. However, because of the sequential structure, that
bandwidth will be shared by traffic between devices on other chassis.
Latency between any two ports is no more than three chassis hops.
48 Fibre Channel ports are available for devices.
Figure 3-1. Cascade-with-a-Loop Topology
Figure 3-1
has the following characteristics:
Figure
3-1. The loop reduces latency
Multiple Chassis Fabrics
3 – Planning
3-3