Dophiのブログ

    Just couple months ago, I attended a Nortel product training course and got an information about new ERS 5600 family form the instructor. During the discussion of ERS 5600, I had much imagination of this new platform and expect ant change from it. Two days ago, this new product family was introduced by Nortel eventually. I would like to have a brief review of this new series.

    The ERS 5600 series is a stackable switch family and also stack-compatible with ERS 5500 models for additional flexibility and investment protection.

Hardware Platforms:

1. ERS 5632FD: This is the most interesting module of 5600 family in my mind and can totally replace ERS 1600 (aka Passport 1600) series. The ERS 5632FD provides all-optical connectivity, incorporating 24 1000Base-X SFP ports and 8 10GBase-X XFP ports. Another interesting specification of ERS 5632FD is the height. For containing eight 10GBsae-X XFP ports, ERS 5632FD is designed as a 1.5U switch.

2. ERS 5650TD: The ERS 5650TD provides 48 ports 10/100/1000Base-T with auto-sense plus 2 XFP uplink ports. (An advanced ERS 5530-24TFD)

3. ERS 5650TD-PWR: The ERS 5650TD-PWR provides 48 ports 10/100/1000Base-T with 802.3af Power over Ethernet plus 2 XFP uplink ports. (A mixed race of ERS 5520 and ERS 5530)

4. ERS 5698TFD: The ERS 5698TFD provides 96 ports 10/100/1000Base-T, six combo SFP ports plus 2 XFP ports. Of course, it's a 2U switch with N+1 redundant power supplies. Actually, I don't understand the design purpose of ERS 5698TFD and what the benefit of the high port number design in a market is? If a single ERS 5698 crushes, every servers connecting to it also get crush and this is a big disaster, isn't this?

 

5. ERS 5698TFD-PWR: The ERS 5698TFD-PWR provides 96 ports 10/100/1000Base-T with IEEE 802.3af Power over Ethernet, six combo SFP ports plus 2 XFP ports.

Each model of 5600 family provides two stacking ports with redundant power supplies.

                         Front View of Stack                      Rear View of Stack

Software Features:

    The software of ERS 5600 bases on previous ERS 5500 series and provides some new features. Therefore, this software version 6.0 can be installed in both 5500 and 5600. The features on the list below are remarkable enhancements in my mind.

Dual agent support:  Two agents and configurations can be installed in either ERS 5500 or 5600 series pure stacks, or for mixed stacks. However, Dual Agent Functionality is not supported on the ERS 5510.

IGMPv3 snooping support:  It a basic function on other platforms but introduced on ERS 5600 and 5500 now.

PIM-SM:  PIM-SM is a licensed feature which has been added to the existing Advanced License for the 5000 series.

IPv6: It provides IPv6 host access to the switch, as well as access to a number of management functions over IPv6.

Many-to-many port mirroring (ERS 5600 series only): Multi-session mirror is supported. A maximum of 4 port mirroring sessions can be configured based on some rules.

DoS attack prevention package (DAPP) support: ERS 5600 ASICs have a number of pre-configured virus and DoS signatures built in.

SMLT enhancements: The square and mesh SMLT topologies are eventually supported on ERS 5000 series.

 

Reference : Nortel Official ERS 5600 Web Link