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PowerConnect B-8000 Hardware Reference Manual
53-1001788-01
PowerConnect B-8000 overview
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Rack-mount design (1U form factor) using existing rail kits (fixed and mid-mount/Telco rail kits)
on a 19-inch EIA rack.
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Extensive diagnostics and system-monitoring capabilities for enhanced high Reliability,
Availability, and Serviceability (RAS).
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The Brocade EZSwitchSetup wizard that makes SAN configuration a three-step point-and-click
task.
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FCoE to FC latency of 1670 nanoseconds.
FCoE and Layer 2 capabilities
The PowerConnect B-8000 has the following capabilities for the Ethernet functions:
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24 ports 10 GbE CEE.
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Low latency, lossless, deterministic interconnect required for FCoE.
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FCoE support along with Fabric Provided MAC Address (FPMA) discovery. FOS delivers these
features and also enables support for Priority-based Flow Control (802.1Qbb). Data Center
Bridging eXchange (DCBX) - Capabilities Exchange and Enhanced Transmission Selection
(802.1Qaz) delivers the lossless and deterministic FCoE requirement.
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Enables hardware-assisted MAC learning and aging.
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Support for 32K MAC addresses and 4K Vlans.
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Support for Layer 2 protocols STP/MSTP/RSTP (802.1q) and Link Aggregation (802.1ad).
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Brocade 10G SFP+ (SR and LR) and Brocade-branded Twinax copper cables.
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CEE port to CEE port latency of 570 nanoseconds (same ASIC) and 1050 nanoseconds
(different ASIC).
Fibre Channel capabilities
The fully-configured PowerConnect B-8000 offers the following features for the Fibre Channel
functions (license required):
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Up to 8 auto-sensing ports of high-performance 8 Gbps technology in a single domain.
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Full 1:1 subscription on 8 Gbps ports.
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1, 2, 4, and 8 Gbps auto-sensing Fibre Channel switch and router ports.
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Universal ports self-configure as E, F, M, or FL ports.
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Inter-Switch Link (ISL) Trunking (licensable), which allows up to eight ports (at 1, 2, 4, or 8 Gbps
speeds) between a pair of switches combined to form a single, logical ISL with a speed of up to
64 Gbps (128 Gbps full duplex) for optimal bandwidth utilization and load balancing.
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Dynamic Path Selection (DPS), which optimizes fabric-wide performance and load balancing by
automatically routing data to the most efficient available path in the fabric.
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Brocade-branded SFP optical transceivers that support any combination of Short Wavelength
(SWL) and Long Wavelength (LWL) optical media among the switch ports.
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Support for unicast, multicast (255 groups), and broadcast data traffic types.