Cabletron Systems 04-0053-01 Virtual Ports, Connecting PVPs, 7a1.3, 5b2.3, A1.3, C5.3, and so on

Virtual Ports and Static Connections VirtualPorts

5.2.1Connecting PVPs

PVPs are physically connected to other devices in the following two ways:

•Physically connecting the PVP port to another PVP switch

When connecting to another PVP switch, the VPI numbers assigned to the ports carrying the PVP on each switch must match. For example if a PVP exits switch 1 on port 7A1 and enters switch 2 on port 3B4, the VPI number assigned to port 7A1 on switch 1 and port 3B4 on switch 2 must be the same (see Figure 5-1).

•Terminating the PVP port to a virtual port

PVPs can be terminated on virtual ports (see Section 5.3). To terminate a PVP on a virtual port, the virtual port number must be the same as the VPI number for the PVP (see Figure 5-1). For example, to terminate a PVP with VPI number of 3, physically connect it to a port that contains a virtual port with virtual port number equal to three

(7a1.3, 5b2.3, A1.3, C5.3, and so on).

VPI

To VPI = 1 or virtual port XyZ.1

VPI

PVP

Switch 1

1 5

PVP

Switch 2

5 3

Physical Link

PVP

Switch 3

3 2

To VPI = 2 or virtual port XyZ.2

PVPs Internal to the switch

Figure 5-1 Terminating PVPs

5.3VIRTUAL PORTS

ATM SmartSwitches support the ability to create virtual ports. Typically, virtual ports are used for terminating Permanent Virtual Path (PVP) connections. Virtual ports are designated by the following convention:

number of the physical port + a period + virtual port number

For example, 7a1.3, 3a4.7, B2.5, A1.3, and so on.

Note Zero (0) cannot be used as a a virtual port value. Virtual port zero (0) is reserved, and represents the physical port. For example, 7A1.0 and B2.0 represent the physical ports 7A1 and B2, and are not available for designating virtual ports.

SmartSwitch ATM User Guide 5-7