SmartSwitch ATM User Guide 5-11
Virtual Ports and Static Connections Soft PVC and PVP Connections
Things To Watch Out For When Creating Virtual Ports
•Make certain that the virtual port number (Base VPI) plus the VPIs designated by MaxVpiBits does
not exceed the Available VPIs as specified by MaxVpiBits in the set portconfig command.
•If you create more than one virtual port on a particular physical port, make certain that you do not
run out of Available VPIs as specified by MaxVpiBits in the set portconfig command.
•If you create more than one virtual port on a particular physical port, make certain that no overlap
occurs among the VPIs used by the virtual ports.
•Make sure the CAC policy is set correctly for the number of virtual ports.
•Make certain that the traffic descriptors used by the virtual ports were created with the appropriate
bandwidth and category of service.
•Use the set cacserviceclassbw command (on a per-port basis) to allocate sufficient bandwidth t o
the specified service class
5.4 SOFT PVC AND PVP CONNECTIONS
The SmartSwitch 6500 supports both soft (or smart) PVC and soft PVP connections. Soft PVC s and PVP s are used to
create PVC and PVP connections between ports on separate switches that are separated by a PNNI network. Normally,
PVCs and PVPs must be configured manually from switch-to-switch across the network. However, soft PVCs and
PVPs need to be configured only at the source and target switches. The connection is then routed through the PNNI
network. Additionally, soft PVCs and PVPs take advantage of PNNI’s self-healing and crank-back capabilities. With
conventional PVCs (for example), it a link goes down on the network, the PVC connection is broken. With soft PVCs,
however, if a link goes down, PNNI has the capability of finding an alternate path to the target, thereby reestablishing
the PVC connection.
Note Soft PVPs are supported on the SmartSwitch 6500 ATM switch only.
Note Only point-to-point soft PVCs and soft PVPs are currently supported.
5.4.1 Soft PVC and Soft PVP differences
The differences between soft PVCs and soft PVPs are essentially the same as those between standard PVC and PVP
connections:
•Soft PVCs are identified by a VPI number and VCI number
•Soft PVPs use only the VPI (VPCI)
•Soft PVPs must use a VPI > 0
•Soft PVPs must be eventually terminated on virtual ports