Lucent, Vixel deliver Fibre Channel over IP
is.pennwellnet.com
By Dave Simpson
Lucent Technologies recently began customer trials of a version of its OptiStar EdgeSwitch
that can handle OC-12, OC-48, Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel traffic. Production
shipments are scheduled for the first quarter.
According to Jason Baim, senior product manager at Lucent, the switch is designed
primarily for high-speed aggregation of Gigabit Ethernet traffic over an optical WAN
backbone (such as OC-12 or OC-48), and delivery of storage traffic over a WAN via a
"Fibre Channel over IP" module. In this scenario, the switch maps the Fibre Channel
protocol to the Internet Protocol (IP). The IP Layer 2/3 switch sits at the edge of a data
center, linking LANs, SANs and WANs.
Lucent developed the Fibre Channel-over-IP module, or "blade," in conjunction with
Vixel, a manufacturer of Fibre Channel hubs, switches and management software. The
blade incorporates a full-function switch engine based on Vixel's 7100 and 7200 series
Fibre Channel switches.
The OptiStar EdgeSwitch has four slots for modules, with two ports per module, for a total
of eight ports. Users can configure the switch with any combination of OC-12, OC-48,
Gigabit Ethernet, or Fibre Channel ports.
The Fibre Channel part of the OptiStar EdgeSwitch is based on an early implementation
of a Fibre Channel-over-IP standard (dubbed IPFC) that is in development in the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The IPFC standard originated with Lucent and
Gadzoox Networks, but a number of vendors have since joined the development effort,
including Brocade Communications, McData, QLogic and Vixel. A draft of the specification
has been released for industry comment.
Lucent plans to target carriers and service providers in applications such as disaster
recovery, remote backup data replication, streaming media, content delivery, and
storage on demand.
Configured with Fibre Channel blades, Lucent's OptiStar EdgeSwitch is expected to
compete with a switch under development by Cisco and Brocade (see InfoStor, July, p.
1). Cisco has licensed Fibre Channel technology from Brocade, and the two companies
will jointly develop a Fibre Channel interface -- including E_Port technology -- for Cisco's
Catalyst 6000 switches. According to Cisco officials, the Fibre Channel-enabled Catalyst
switches will hit the market "in the first half of 2001."
Lucent's OptiStar EdgeSwitch will also compete with existing products from Computer
Network Technology. CNT's UltraNet family of gateways and directors allows users to link
Fibre Channel SANs over IP networks, which CNT refers to as "SAN over IP."
Lucent's Baim says that the OptiStar EdgeSwitch will be priced at $50,000, fully
configured.
In storage environments, Lucent's OptiStar EdgeSwitch will also compete with products
from vendors such as NetConvergence (InfoStor, October, p. 10), Nishan Systems (June,
p. 16 and October, p.10), and SAN Valley (September, p. 20).
Fibre Channel over IP technology will also compete-- and perhaps be complementary
with -- emerging technologies such as the iSCSI specification under development in the
IETF. iSCSI will allow users to run SCSI over TCP/IP networks (June, p. 1). The
specification's major developers include Cisco and IBM.
Lucent plans to support iSCSI, but Baim notes that the standard may be in development
for years. "We will support iSCSI as our customers need it, but we see Fibre Channel over
IP as a first step that our customers need now," says Baim. "There's still a lot of
intelligence that has to be put in the network and in the backbone network before you
can start doing iSCSI."
OptiStar EdgeSwitch: Key specs
Non-blocking 22Gbps switch fabric
Layer 2/3 switching and routing
High speed (up to 2.5Gbps) WAN connectivity
OSPF and BGP4 routing protocols
Network modules include:
-OC-48c Packet over SONET (one port)
-OC-12c Packet over SONET (two port)
-Gigabit Ethernet (two port)
-Fibre Channel (two port): Available Q1 2001 |
