i960 Core
The i960 core provides the SNMP protocol stacks to support industry-standard MIBs. Additionally, Cabletron enterprise extension MIBs are supported for each media type. Advanced management services, such as the Distributed LAN Monitor, telnet and network address to MAC address mapping, are also provided by the i960 core.
The Host engine sends and receives packets via the CPU’s SmartSwitch ASIC Interface. This allows the bridge to perform spanning tree protocol and other bridging functions. The SMB Interfaces provide communication to the Host Engine for management functions.
INB NIB
Each module that attaches to the Internal Network Bus (INB) has an INB Network Interface Block (NIB). The INB NIB converts canonical frames to fixed length data blocks for transmission onto the INB. For data blocks received from the INB, the INB NIB reassembles the data blocks received from the INB back into canonical frames for transmission to the SmartSwitch ASIC then from the SmartSwitch ASIC to the front panel ports.
System Management Buses
There are two management channels within the SmartSwitch 9000 system: the SMB-1 and the SMB-10. These buses provide side-band management and inter- module management communication.
SMB-1 Bus
The SMB-1 is a 1Mbs management bus located within the SmartSwitch 9000. This bus is utilized by all diagnostic controllers in the system including connectivity modules, power supply modules and the environmental module. The SMB-1 transports inter-chassis information between system components, such as power and environmental information, as well as diagnostic messages. Periodic loop- back tests are performed by all modules that share this bus to ensure the validity of SMB-1. In the event a failure is detected on SMB-1, the SMB-10 may be used as an alternate communication channel.
