Introduction

Supported Technologies

The ProLiant BL e-Class C-GbE Interconnect Switch supports the following technologies.

Layer 2 Switching

The ProLiant BL e-Class C-GbE Interconnect Switch uses 10/100/1000 Gigabit Layer 2 switching technology. Layer 2 refers to the Data Link layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, which is concerned with moving data packets across a network by enforcing Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD). This layer performs:

•Ethernet packet framing

•MAC addressing

•Physical medium transmission error detection

•Medium allocation (collision avoidance)

•Contention resolution (collision handling)

Layer 2 switch technology allows the interconnect switch to look into data packets and redirect them based on the destination MAC address. This technology reduces traffic congestion on the network, because packets, instead of being transmitted to all ports, are transmitted to the destination port only.

IEEE 802.1Q-Based Virtual Local Area Network

The ProLiant BL e-Class C-GbE Interconnect Switch provides support for a total of 255 IEEE 802.1Q Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) (including user configurable and/or dynamic registered), for server grouping and isolation. A VLAN is a network segment configured according to a logical scheme rather than a physical layout. VLANs can be used to combine any collection of LAN segments into an autonomous user group that appears as a single LAN. VLANs also logically segment the physical network into different broadcast domains so that packets are forwarded only between ports within the VLAN. This technology enhances performance by conserving bandwidth and improves security by limiting traffic to specific domains.

IMPORTANT: The greater the number of VLANs, the greater the interconnect switch CPU utilization. For maximum interconnect switch performance, HP recommends that you be judicious when configuring the number of VLANs.

Spanning Tree Protocol

The interconnect switch supports Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), which allows the blocking of links that form loops between switches in a network. When multiple links between switches are detected, a primary link is established. Duplicated links are blocked from use and become standby links. If the primary link fails, the standby link is activated. Refer to Appendix D for more information.

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HP ProLiant BL e-Class C-GbE Interconnect Switch User Guide