24 Nortel Networks L2/3 Ethernet Switch Module for IBM Eserver BladeCenter
Figure 4-3 on page 23 also indicates the following:
򐂰Two Nortel GbESMs in the same BladeCenter chassis can ping or telnet to each other
without connecting external ports. They cannot pass user data to each other via this path,
which passes traffic through the Management Module.
򐂰The internal blade ports cannot be on the same VLAN as the Management Module ports.
As a result, the blade servers on the production network must be on a different IP subnet
than the Management Module and other devices which are on the management network.
4.2 Nortel Networks L2/3 GbESM block diagram
Figure 4-4 shows the block diagram of the Nortel Networks Layer 2/3 GbE Switch Module.
The Nortel GbESM has two Gigabit Ethernet Aggregator (GEAs) for switching. It has 1 MB on
chip cache for packet buffers and supports 20 Gigabit Ethernet ports (14 internal ports and six
external ports). The two GEAs are interconnected with 10 Gigabit proprietary link, which is
shown as the 10G HiGig link in Figure4-4. HiGig is a proprietary protocol from IBM.
GEA0 supports eight Gigabit Ethernet ports (two internal connections-5421s to the
Management Modules and six external ports). GEA1 supports the remaining 12 internal
ports. The connection between the 5421s and the Management Module links up at 100 Mbps.
Copper ports use six external 1000BASE-T RJ-45 connectors. Fiber ports use six 1000BASE
SX SFP transceivers that are included with the GbE switch module.
Figure 4-4 Nortel Networks L2/3 GbESM block diagram
10G HiGig
&
magnetics
OR
Six SFPs
(SX)
Six RJ-45