Switches & Bridges

he Cisco UCS 6400 Series Fabric Interconnects are a core part of the Cisco Unified Computing System, providing both network connectivity and management capabilities for the system (Figure 2). The Cisco UCS 6400 Series offer line-rate, low-latency, lossless 10/25/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and Fibre Channel functions.

The Cisco UCS 6400 Series provide the management and communication backbone for the Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers, UCS 5108 B-Series Server Chassis, UCS Managed C-Series Rack Servers, and UCS S-Series Storage Servers. All servers attached to a Cisco UCS 6400 Series Fabric Interconnect become part of a single, highly available management domain. In addition, by supporting a unified fabric, Cisco UCS 6400 Series Fabric Interconnect provides both the LAN and SAN connectivity for all servers within its domain.

From a networking perspective, the Cisco UCS 6400 Series use a cut-through architecture, supporting deterministic, low-latency, line-rate 10/25/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet ports, switching capacity of 3.82 Tbps for the 6454, 7.42 Tbps for the 64108, and 200 Gbps bandwidth between the Fabric Interconnect 6400 series and the IOM 2408 per 5108 blade chassis, independent of packet size and enabled services. The product family supports Cisco low-latency, lossless 10/25/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet unified network fabric capabilities, which increase the reliability, efficiency, and scalability of Ethernet networks. The fabric interconnect supports multiple traffic classes over a lossless Ethernet fabric from the server through the fabric interconnect. Significant TCO savings come from an FCoE-optimized server design in which Network Interface Cards (NICs), Host Bus Adapters (HBAs), cables, and switches can be consolidated.

Unified fabric with FCoE: I/O consolidation

The Cisco UCS 6400 Series Fabric Interconnects are built to consolidate LAN and SAN traffic onto a single unified fabric, saving the Capital Expenditures (CapEx) and Operating Expenses (OpEx) associated with multiple parallel networks, different types of adapter cards, switching infrastructure, and cabling within racks. The unified ports allow ports in the fabric interconnect to support direct connections from Cisco UCS to existing native Fibre Channel SANs. The capability to connect FCoE to a native Fibre Channel protects existing storage-system investments while dramatically simplifying in-rack cabling.

Cisco UCS Manager

The Cisco UCS 6400 Series host and run Cisco UCS Manager in a highly available configuration, enabling the fabric interconnects to fully manage all Cisco UCS elements. Connectivity to the Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server Chassis is maintained through the Cisco UCS 2200 and 2408 Series Fabric Extenders in each blade chassis. The Cisco UCS 6400 Series Fabric Interconnects support out-of-band management, through a dedicated 10/100/1000-Mbps Ethernet management port, as well as in-band management. Cisco UCS Manager typically is deployed in a clustered active/passive configuration on redundant fabric interconnects connected through dual 10/100/1000 Ethernet clustering ports.

Cisco UCS 6454 54-Port Fabric Interconnect

The Cisco UCS 6454 54-Port Fabric Interconnect (Figure 3) is a One-Rack-Unit (1RU) 10/25/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet, FCoE, and Fibre Channel switch offering up to 3.82 Tbps throughput and up to 54 ports. The switch has 28 10/25-Gbps Ethernet ports, 4 1/10/25- Gbps Ethernet ports, 6 40/100-Gbps Ethernet uplink ports, and 16 unified ports that can support 10/25-Gbps Ethernet ports or 8/16/32-Gbps Fibre Channel ports. All Ethernet ports are capable of supporting FCoE.

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Cisco Catalyst Chassis+Fan Tray + Sup2T; IP Services ONLY incl VSS - Manageable - 10 Gigabit Ethernet - 10GBase-X - 2 Layer Supported - 3 SFP Slots - Optical Fiber - Rack-mountable - 1 Year Limited Warranty Learn More

The Cisco Catalyst WS-C6504-E Chassis is a 320-Gbps, small form factor, high-performance chassis. With the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 720, it can deliver up to 80 Gbps of switching capacity per slot. The 6504-E Catalyst switch offers the broadest range of interface modules with industry-leading performance and advanced feature integration.

With this flexibility the Cisco Catalyst 6504-E is suitable for deployments ranging from small and medium-sized core networks to distribution and access networks and to the WAN edge. With high availability and resiliency the platform is well suited for metro provider-edge applications.

The 4-slot Cisco Catalyst 6504-E Chassis delivers performance in a compact 5-rack-unit (5-RU) form factor. It can be configured two ways-with a single supervisor engine and up to three line cards, or with dual supervisor engines and up to two line cards. The Cisco Catalyst 6504-E also supports redundant AC or DC power supplies.

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The 6-slot Cisco Catalyst 6506-E switch provides intermediate port densities, ideal for many wiring closet and core network deployments. Catalyst 6506-E supports Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series end-to-end operational consistency benefits.

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The Cisco Catalyst 6500 and 6500-E Series sets the new standard for IP Communications and application delivery in enterprise campus and service provider networks by maximizing user productivity and enhancing operational control. As the premier intelligent, multilayer modular Cisco switch, the Catalyst 6500 Series delivers secure, converged, end-to-end services, from the wiring closet to the core network, the data center, and the WAN edge. The 6500-E series switches offer enhancements to scale beyond the 4000W power supply. Today's 6500 series switch cannot scale beyond 4000W of total system capacity except for 6513. The 6513 can support up to 6000W of power.

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