Brocade Communications Systems 5000 Hoja De Datos

The Brocade 5000 is designed to protect 
both Brocade and McDATA technology 
investments. It is fully compatible with 
Brocade 1, 2, and 4 Gbit/sec devices and
provides native E_Port interoperability for
existing McDATA devices. The Brocade 
5000 is also backed by FOS and M-EOS
engineering, test, and support expertise to
provide reliable operation in SAN fabrics 
using any of the supported configurations.

In addition, the switch features lower 
power dissipation as well as consolidated
power and fan assemblies to improve
environmental performance and reduce
ownership costs. These capabilities 
help make the Brocade 5000 a cost-
effective solution for a wide range of SAN 
environments, including the edge
of enterprise core-to-edge networks.

iNDUstRY-lEADiNg PERFORMANCE 

To support mission-critical environments, 
the Brocade 5000 provides best-in-class
performance for midrange SAN switches. 
It features a non-blocking architecture with 
as many as 32 ports concurrently active
at 4 Gbit/sec full duplex to provide an
aggregate bandwidth of 256 Gbit/sec.

The Brocade 5000 utilizes ASIC technology 
featuring four 8-port groups. within these 
groups, an Inter-Switch Link (ISL) trunk can 
supply up to 32 Gbit/sec of data throughput
(see Figure 1). In addition to reducing 
congestion and increasing bandwidth,
enhanced Brocade ISL Trunking utilizes
ISLs more efficiently to free up the number
of usable switch ports.

Additional performance capabilities include:

• Eight virtual channels on each ISL 

enhance Quality of Service traffic 
prioritization and anti-starvation
capabilities at the port level to avoid
performance degradation.

• Exchange-based Dynamic Path Selection

(DPS) optimizes fabric-wide performance 
and load balancing by automatically
routing data to the most efficient 
available path in the fabric (see Figure 2). 
It augments ISL Trunking to provide more 
effective load balancing in certain
configurations. In addition, DPS can 
balance traffic between the Brocade 
5000 and McDATA devices enabled with 
Brocade Open Trunking.

ENtERPRisE-ClAss AVAilABilitY 

FOR BUsiNEss CONtiNUANCE

The Brocade 5000 provides a reliable 
foundation for disaster recovery and
business continuance by employing
enterprise-class availability features
such as hot-swappable, redundant,
and integrated fan and power supply
assemblies. Moreover, hot code load
and activation helps maximize application
uptime with faster system upgrades and
maintenance to reduce the dependency
on scheduled outages. Combined with a 
wide range of diagnostic and monitoring
functions, these capabilities help provide
a highly available SAN environment.

To support business continuance 
operations, the Brocade 5000 enables
industry-leading distances between servers
and storage devices. Support for distances 

up to 500 kilometers at 1 Gbit/sec and
125 kilometers at 4 Gbit/sec facilitates
the deployment of high-performance,
long-distance SAN initiatives such as 
data center consolidation.

HigH sCAlABilitY WitH  

PORts ON DEMAND

Delivering up to 32 ports in a 1U form
factor, the Brocade 5000 combines cost-
effectiveness with highly scalable Ports on
Demand capabilities. It has a minimum of 
16 ports enabled, and organizations can
easily expand to 24 or 32 ports by activating
a license as their requirements change. 
As a result, the Brocade 5000 provides a 
modular “pay-as-you-grow” approach to
business expansion.

sUPERiOR ROi AND  

iNVEstMENt PROtECtiON

The Brocade 5000 combines performance, 
availability, interoperability, and scalability
advantages with investment protection. 
As a result, it is designed to enable rapid 
installation in existing SAN environments—
reducing both deployment cost and complexity.

The Brocade 5000 utilizes the same Fabric 
OS that supports the entire Brocade SAN 
product family—from the 8-port Brocade 
200E Switch to the 768-port Brocade DCX 
Backbone. This helps ensure forward and 
backward compatibility among Brocade SAN 
switches while simplifying maintenance and
field upgrades. Moreover, organizations can 
manage the Brocade 5000 with existing
management applications such as Brocade
EFCM 9.x and Brocade Fabric Manager.

Figure 1.  
ISL Trunking with 2 and 4 Gbit/sec links.

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4 Gbit/sec with 8 trunks

Optimal bandwidth utilization using

up to four 2 Gbit/sec links

congestion

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ASIC Preserves

In-order Delivery

ASIC Preserves

In-order Delivery

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