The LNW73 and LNW73C are 4-port Storage Area Networking (SAN) interface cards designed to facilitate SAN distance extensions vian Alcatel-Lucent 1665 DMX using GFP-T (ITU G.7041). These cards employ standard encapsulation, and standard STS virtual concatenation according to ITU G.707. For extended FC/FICON interfaces, the LNW73/73C also supports buffer_to_buffer credit management spoofing consistent with ANSI T11 FC-BB-3_GFPT draft standard.
They utilize PTM optics to provide the option of FICON, ESCON, or Fibre-channel interfaces natively on the Alcatel-Lucent 1665 DMX shelf. Each pack must be equipped to support only one type of traffic at a time (FICON/FC or ESCON). The LNW73/73C can operate at 1 Gbps or 2 Gbps. When the pack is operating at 2 Gbps only every other port may be used. Therefore, the total number of SAN interfaces on an Alcatel-Lucent 1665 DMX shelf varies depending on the main circuit packs, equipage and configuration of the ports.
When Alcatel-Lucent 1665 DMX is equipped with non-VLF Main packs, LNW73/73C packs can only be placed in Slot 1 of any Function Unit group or Growth slot on the shelf (A1–G1). If all available slots are equipped with LNW73/73C circuit packs, Alcatel-Lucent 1665 DMX supports a total add/drop capacity of 20 when the LNW73/73c is operating at 1G FC/FICON or ESCON and 10 when LNW73/73C is operating at 2G FC/FICON. If the LNW73/73C circuit packs occupy only slot 1 of a Function Unit group, slot 2 must be populated with an apparatus blank.
When Alcatel-Lucent 1665 DMX is equipped with VLF Main (LNW59, LNW82, or LNW504) packs, Ethernet packs can occupy both Slot 1 and 2 of any Function Unit group or Growth slot on the shelf (A1–G1). With VLF Mains and all tributary slots populated with LNW73/73C packs, Alcatel-Lucent 1665 DMX provides a total add/drop capacity of 40 when the LNW73/73c is operating at 1G FC/FICON or ESCON and 20 when LNW73/73c is operating at 2G FC/FICON.
While the capacity of each port is 2 Gbps, the true capacity of each port is relative to the type of PTM it is equipped with. For ESCON traffic, the PTM ports have a capacity of 200 Mbps. The 2 Gbps capacity of the ports is sufficient to support FC2G and FICON Express.
The LNW73C differs from the LNW73 in that it enables compression of asynchronous FC traffic. The LNW73C is able to conserve up to 50% of bandwidth versus uncompressed SAN traffic in typical applications. SAN compression enables a high throughput of up to two full-line rate FC-2G interfaces in a single pack.
The LNW73 and LNW73C can utilize both 1000BASE-LX and 1000BASE-SX PTM optics. Both the 1000BASE-LX and 1000BASE-SX optics can support FICON traffic. The LNW73/73C can also utilize ESCON PTM optics for ESCON traffic. These PTM optics can be ordered and plugged into the LNW73/73C as their capacity becomes needed.
For the detailed specifications of these optics, see:
Performance monitoring capabilities are available on the LNW73/73C circuit packs. A detailed list of monitored parameters can be found in Performance monitoring.
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