Datasheet

WHAT IS AN ETHERNET FABRIC?
Compared to classic hierarchical Ethernet
architectures,Ethernetfabricsprovide
higherlevelsofperformance,utilization,
availability,andsimplicity.Theyare
designedtobe:
• Flatter: Eliminates the need for
SpanningTreeProtocol(STP),while
beingcompletelyinteroperablewith
existingEthernetnetworks
• Flexible:Canbearchitectedinany
topologytobestmeettheneeds
ofanyvarietyofworkloads
• Resilient:Usesmultiple“leastcost”
paths for high performance and
highreliability
• Elastic:Scaleseasilyupanddown
as needed
MoreadvancedEthernetfabrics
borrowfurtherfromFibreChannel
fabricconstructs:
•Theyareself-formingandfunction
asasinglelogicalentity,inwhichall
switchesautomaticallyknowabout
eachotherandallconnectedphysical
and logical devices.
•Managementcanthenbedomain-
basedratherthandevice-based,and
denedbypolicyratherthanrepetitive
procedures.
•Thesefeatures,alongwith
virtualization-specicenhancements,
makeiteasiertoexplicitlyaddress
thechallengesofVMautomation
withinthenetwork,therebyfacilitating
betterITautomation.
•Protocolconvergence,suchasFibre
ChanneloverEthernet(FCoE),mayalso
beafeature,intendedasameansof
better bridging LAN and Storage Area
Network(SAN)trafc.
LearnmoreaboutEthernetfabricsat
www.brocade.com/ethernet-fabric.
Figure 1.
ComparedtoclassicEthernetarchitectures,Ethernetfabricsallowallpathstobeactive
andprovidegreaterscalability—whilereducingmanagementcomplexity.
Servers with 10 Gbps Connections
Classic Hierarchical Ethernet Architecture
Servers with 10 Gbps Connections
Ethernet Fabric Architecture
Scalability
CoreEdge
CoreAggregationAccess
Figure 2.
BrocadeVCSFabrictechnologysimpliesthenetworkarchitecture,enablesuniedstorage
connectivity,improvesVMmobility,andallowstheseamlessinsertionofservices.
Dedicated Fibre
Channel SAN for
Tier 1 applications
VCS fabric
extension
Blade
servers Rack-mount
servers
REMOTE
DATA CENTER
PRIMARY
DATA CENTER
VM
VMVM
Core
routers
FCoE/iSCSI/NAS
storage
VM
VM
VM
VM
VM
VM
SAN
Public
Network
VM
VCS fabric
extension
Native
Fibre Channel
Security services
(firewall, encryption)
Layer 4–7
application delivery