IBM 8260 manual Beacon Recovery on the Module Switching Modules

Models: 8260

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Ring monitors are associated with each port and can be switched from upstream to downstream of that port. When the ring monitor detects a Beacon MAC frame on the ring, it calls in the Recovery ASIC to perform beacon recovery and isolate the faulty port (station). The following sections describe the beacon recovery procedures employed in the module switching modules and the per-port switching modules.

8.9.4 Beacon Recovery on the Module Switching Modules

As described in 8.9.1, ªIntroductionº on page 151, when a ring station detects a failure of token-claiming following a hard error, it transmits a Beacon MAC frame. The Beacon MAC frame can be one of the following types:

Type 2

Type 3

Type 4

The Downstream Recovery ASIC (DRA) is normally operating in MAC frame monitormode, but as soon as it detects one of the above beacon frames, it enters frame transmitmode and starts transmitting Beacon Type 1 MAC frames.

Note

If DRA sees a Beacon Type 1 (that is, a Beacon MAC frame issued by a DRA on another module) it will remain in MAC frame monitormode and will not issue its own Beacon Type 1 MAC frames. This happens when a beaconing condition is encountered on another module which is attached to the same ring as this module.

The Beacon Type 1 MAC frames issued by DRA will first go onto the backplane and then through all the other token-ring modules and lobes that make up the beaconing ring. If the Beacon frames reach the Upstream Recovery ASIC (URA) on this module, two conclusions can be made:

1.The rest of the ring is complete and operating normally and

2.The fault must be somewhere in this module or the stations attached to this module or on the trunks

At this point, the module is wrapped from the backplane and Recovery ASIC begins wrapping ports sequentially, starting with the first active port upstream of DRA. The wrapping of the ports continues until the normal operation of the ring is restored. The normal operation of the ring is detected when the DRA starts receiving its own Beacon Type 1 MAC frames. At this point, the Recovery ASIC, has isolated the beacon fault domain to two ports (the last two ports which are wrapped) on this module.

To determine which one of the two ports is causing the beaconing condition, it now wraps all the ports on the module and then tests each of the two ports in the fault domain individually. The faulty port will be wrapped permanently and the remaining ports of the module will be unwrapped and the module will be inserted back into the backplane ring.

For example, in Figure 97 on page 159, if a beaconing condition is caused by station Battached to module 1, the downstream station (station C″), will

158 8260 Multiprotocol Intelligent Switching Hub

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IBM 8260 manual Beacon Recovery on the Module Switching Modules

8260 specifications

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