BROCADE IP PRIMER

Console49F Link 50F1 3 5 7 9 1113 15 17 19 21 2325 27 29 31 33 3537 39 41 43 45 47Power1F 2F 3F 4F2 4 6 8 10 1214 16 18 20 22 2426 28 30 32 34 3638 40 42 44 46 48Layer 1 Ethernet (Cabling)If you've never had to make or use a crossover cable, don't be too surprised.Many NIC manufacturers have added a technology to automatically sensewhether a crossover signal is needed or not. It simply compensates for whateverhardware is in place. Brocade switches are included in this. While it istechnically proper to use a crossover cable when connecting two Brocadeswitches, it is not necessary. The switches are intelligent enough to know whatyou meant to do.Twisted pair networks use a star topology. At the center of the star is a hub orswitch. All of the participants in the network plug into the star.SwitchUnlike the bus topology, this is very expandable, and can accommodate virtuallyany number of hosts you may need. If a cable is broken, only oneparticipant is negatively affected. The rest of the network may carry on. A disadvantageto this topology is that now the hub or switch becomes a singlepoint of failure. If it goes down, the network goes down. There are methods ofprotecting yourself from this kind of failure which we will discuss in laterchapters.Twisted pair can achieve throughput of up to gigabit (1000 Mbps) speeds.Unfortunately, like coaxial, it has an attenuation limit as well, and it's shorter.Signal is rated for up to 100 meters.FiberWhat if you need lengths of cables much longer than 100 meters? Or what ifyour facility has a lot of EMI? Here comes fiber.The major advantages with fiber are its attenuation limit (up to 70 km) and,because it uses light rather than electricity, it's invulnerable to EMI. It can alsoachieve much greater speeds than its copper counterparts. The current maximumis 10 Gbps, but technology is always moving forward. Speeds of 100Gbps or more are realistically not too far away. And the media that will bringthese speeds to you? Fiber.Brocade IP Primer 25