HP DL360 10 Gigabit Ethernet technology for industry-standard servers - Page 6

The typical 10GbE LAN optical standards can be summarized as follows: 10GBASE-LR (10km over single-mode) 10GBASE-SR (26m - 300m over multi-mode) 10GBASE-LRM (220m over multi-mode) Transceiver modules 10 GbE ports on switches and routers are typically independent and can be installed with pluggable transceiver modules making it convenient for end users to change media and distance ranges. Table 2 describes the current types of transceiver modules supported by HP. Table 2. HP supported modules Module Type XenPak X2 XFP SFP+ Description 802.3ae (optical) and 802.3ak (copper) compliant, Large face plate area profile History/Change 1st Pluggable 10GbE Module Large face plate area profile 2/3 the size of XENPAK Supports all 10GbE Standards More compact module than XenPak and X2, Primarily supports optical SerDes moved to host board Small form-factor pluggable transceiver module Supports optical and copper standards SerDes and clock recovery moved to host board Status Oldest and still shipping, Being phased out Still shipping and in use Still shipping and in wide use Newest, shipping and in use 10GbE connection standards The electrical interfaces that are most commonly used to connect 10GbE are XAUI, XFI, and SFI. XAUI is a standard for connecting 10GbE specified in IEEE 802.3ae. The 16-pin parallel interface contains 4 lanes (pairs) each in the transmit and receive directions. XENPAK, X2, and XPAK modules use XAUI to connect to their hosts. XFP modules use an XFI interface and SFP+ modules use an SFI interface. Both the XFI and SFI are serial 10 gigabit per second interfaces and require only 1 lane (pair) in each direction allowing for much smaller module connectors. FlexNICs and Flex-10 VC interconnect modules use IEEE 10GBASE-KR (KR) to send 10GbE serial signals across the signal midplane. KR uses one lane (pair) to carry both transmit and receive directions. Because KR allows the Flex-10 module to be a single-wide configuration, users can install two modules side by side for redundancy. For more information on HP Flex-10 technology, see the self-titled section later in this brief, or follow the Flex-10 URL in the „For More Information‟ section at the end of this brief. Converged network fabrics with 10GbE Any network topology constructed with one or more switched network nodes can also be described as a "fabric." Fabric is a common description for individual network types that can include communication, storage, management, and high-speed networks. The implementation, management, and cost of using multiple network fabrics in data centers have prompted HP and other vendors to investigate converged fabric solutions. Figure 2 depicts the concept of a single fabric. It is based on 6