What is ISL in SAN switch?

An ISL is a connection between two switches through an Expansion Port (E_Port). When using ISL Trunking to aggregate bandwidth of up to four ports, the speed of the ISLs between switches in a fabric is quadrupled. For example, at 2 Gb/s speeds, trunking delivers ISL throughput of up to 8 Gb per second.

What is ISL in Brocade SAN Switch?

Inter-Switch Links
For Brocade switches on which the Inter-Switch Links (ISL) are configured using FC ports, you must configure the switch ports on each switch fabric that connect the ISL. These ISL ports are also known as E-ports. All of the ISLs in an FC switch fabric must be configured with the same speed and distance.

What is ISL Trunking Brocade?

Brocade Inter-Switch Link (ISL) trunking aggregates multiple ISLs into a single, logical high- bandwidth connection that is efficient, resilient, and simple. Emulex HBA trunking extends this technology between endpoints and switches to provide end-to-end trunking benefits.

What is upstream and downstream in Brocade switch?

Any ISL of a switch that takes to the Principal switch is a upstream. Any ISL of a switch that goes away from principle switch is a downstream.

What is trunking in SAN switch?

Trunking, also known as VSAN trunking, is a feature specific to switches in the Cisco MDS 9000 Family. Trunking enables interconnect ports to transmit and receive frames in more than one VSAN, over the same physical link, using enhanced ISL (EISL) frame format (see Figure 24-1).

What is E port in San switch?

An Expansion port (E_port) is an inter-switch port used in fiber channel topology to connect two fiber switches. An E_port is connected to another E_port to create an inter-switch link (ISL). The E_port carries frames between switches, which are used for fabric management and configuration.

What is the difference between ISL and 802.1 Q?

802.1q encapsulation inserts a 4 byte tag into original frame and FCS (Frame Check Sequence) is re-calculated. ISL uses more processor cycles than 802.1q because of the modification of the header and recalculation of FCS.

What is an ISL trunk?

Inter-Switch Link (ISL) Trunking is optional software requiring a license that allows you to create trunking groups of ISLs between adjacent switches.

What is upstream and downstream in switch?

In a network, the terms upstream and downstream are used with respect to the position of the devices. The flow of packets from the access switches to the distribution and core switches is upstream. Whereas, from core level switches to access switches, the flow of packets is downstream traffic.

What is a brocade stack?

A Brocade traditional stack contains from two to 12 units configured in a ring or linear topology. Brocade stackable devices are connected either through dedicated stacking ports or through ports that can be configured for either stacking or data.