HP StorageWorks 2/140 FW 08.01.00 McDATA Products in a SAN Environment Plannin - Page 40

Introduction to McDATA Multi-Protocol Products 1 - Optical paddles that operate at 1.0625 or 2.1250 Gbps provide eight Fibre Channel port connections through duplex SFP fiber-optic transceivers. A fully-populated director supports up to 256 port connections at 1.0625 or 2.1250 Gbps data rates. - Optical paddles that operate at 10.2000 Gbps provide two Fibre Channel port connections through duplex XFP fiber-optic transceivers. A fully-populated director supports up to 64 port connections at the 10.2000 Gbps data rate. Shortwave laser transceivers are available for transferring data over multimode fiber-optic cable. Longwave laser transceivers are available for transferring data over singlemode fiber-optic cable. Fiber-optic cables attach to director port transceivers with duplex LC connectors. Fabric Switches In similar fashion to directors, fabric switches also provide highperformance, dynamic connections between end devices in a Fibre Channel switched network. Fabric switches also support mainframe and OSI computing environments. Through non-blocking architecture and limited FRU redundancy, fabric switches also offer high availability and high-performance bandwidth. Although switches do not offer the redundancy, availability, or port count of an enterprise-class director, they offer a much lower-cost connectivity option. Fabric switches should be installed for: • Implementation as the principal building block of a small-scale SAN or as a consolidation point for enterprise-class SANs. • Departmental and workgroup connectivity. • Applications where distributed storage predominates. Fabric switches also provide connectivity between servers and devices manufactured by multiple OEMs. To determine if an OEM product can communicate through switch connections or if communication restrictions apply, refer to the product publications or contact McDATA. 1-14 McDATA Products in a SAN Environment - Planning Manual