IBM L2/3 manual GbESM2

						Uplinks
1 2 3 4 5 6					1 2 3 4 5 6
GbESM1					GbESM2
M					M	Management
M					M
						Module
1					2
					2
1	2	1	2	1	2	Blade
Blade		Blade		Blade
						Servers
Server1		Server2		Server14

Figure 4-2 BladeCenter Ethernet connectivity

Internal Layer 2 traffic flow in the Nortel Networks L2/3 GbESM

Figure 4-3 shows the internal Layer 2 traffic flow in the Nortel GbESM. The hard coded filter in the Nortel GbESM blocks all traffic between the external ports and the Management Module ports. Two Nortel GbESMs in the same BladeCenter chassis exchange Layer 2 frames across the Management Module. The Nortel GbESM processes BPDUs that reach it via the Management Module if Spanning Tree is enabled for the Management Module ports. This is rarely necessary.

6 External ports

Hard-coded filter

2Management Module ports

CPU/AOS

14 internal blade ports

Figure 4-3 Layer 2 frames flow in the Nortel Networks L2/3 GbESM

Chapter 4. Nortel Networks Layer 2/3 GbE Switch Module architecture 23