Installation guide

31
Planning IRF topology and connections
You can create an IRF fabric in daisy chain topology, or more reliably, ring topology. In ring topology, the
failure of one IRF link does not cause the IRF fabric to split as in daisy chain topology. Rather, the IRF fabric
changes to a daisy chain topology without interrupting network services.
You connect the IRF member switches through IRF ports, the logical interfaces for the connections between
IRF member switches. Each IRF member switch has two IRF ports: IRF-port 1 and IRF-port 2. To use an IRF port,
you must bind at least one physical port to it.
When connecting two neighboring IRF member switches, you must connect the physical ports of IRF-port 1
on one switch to the physical ports of IRF-port 2 on the other switch.
The HP 5900AF-48XG-4QSFP+ switch can provide 10-GE and 40-GE IRF connections through SFP+ ports
and QSFP+ ports, respectively. You can bind several SFP+ or QSFP+ ports to an IRF port for increased
bandwidth and availability.
NOTE:
 Figure 31 and Figure 32 show the topologies of an IRF fabric made up of three HP 5900AF-48XG-4QSFP+
switches that use SFP+ ports for IRF connections.
 The IRF port connections in the two figures are for illustration only, and more connection methods are available.
Figure 31 IRF fabric in daisy chain topology
IRF-port1
IRF-port2
IRF-port1
IRF-port2
1 2 3
1
2
3