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Storage Area Networks For Dummies®

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Chapter 5: Designing the SAN<br />

105<br />

Figure 5-12:<br />

Faulttolerant<br />

loops.<br />

Disk<br />

storage<br />

Switched Fabric Topology<br />

A switched fabric is a collection of switches tied together through inter-switch<br />

links to create a fabric of switches.<br />

Switched fabrics are more expensive than hub-based loops because switches<br />

are a lot smarter than hubs. An average 8-port hub can cost a few thousand<br />

dollars, but a large 256-port director-class switch can cost upwards of a hundred<br />

thousand dollars. You do get what you pay for, though. Whereas a hubbased<br />

arbitrated loop topology can have a maximum of 127 devices per loop,<br />

a switched fabric can have up to 64 million devices in it. This is why switches<br />

usually come with high-availability features that make them very reliable.<br />

<strong>For</strong> example, director-class switches have No Single Point of Failure (NSPOF)<br />

features: If one part breaks, a redundant part is ready to take over for the<br />

failed part. The good news is that electronics is one area where things get<br />

cheaper as they get faster! Soon, switch prices will have more intelligence<br />

and be cheaper than they are now.

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