Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch 6800 Series - Ethernet Ports Overview; Omniswitch 6800 and 6850 Series Combo Ports

Ethernet Ports Overview Configuring Ethernet Ports
page 37-4 OmniSwitch 6800/6850/9000 Network Configuration Guide March 2008
Ethernet Ports Overview
This chapter describes the Ethernet software CLI commands used for configuring and monitoring your
switch’s Ethernet port parameters. These commands allow you to handle administrative or port-related
requests to and from SNMP, CLI, or WebView.
Note. OmniSwitch 9000 Series switches do not support combo ports. These ports are supported on
OmniSwitch 6800 Series and OmniSwitch 6850 Series switches only.
OmniSwitch 6800 and 6850 Series Combo Ports
All OmniSwitch 6800 and 6850 switches have four ports that are shared between four copper 10/100/1000
RJ-45 connections and four fiber 1Gbps SFP connectors, which can accept any qualified 1Gbps SFP trans-
ceivers. These ports are known as combo ports (also sometimes referred to as “hybrid” ports).
You can use either the copper 10/100/1000 port or the equivalent fiber SFP connector, for example, but,
not both at the same time. By default, combo ports are set to preferred fiber, which means that the switch
will use the fiber SFP connector instead of the equivalent copper RJ-45 port or fiber 100 Mbps port if both
ports are enabled and have a valid link. However, if the SFP connector goes down, the equivalent RJ-45 or
fiber 100 Mbps port will come up. This mode can be used if you want to use the fiber 1 Gbps connection
as your main link while having a copper link as a backup.
For example, on the OmniSwitch 6800-48 ports, 45–48 are combo ports. If cables are connected into the
copper port 45 and the fiber port 45, the fiber SFP link will be the active one. If the SFP link goes down
then the copper port will automatically become active. No user intervention is required.
Note. See “Valid Port Settings on OmniSwitch 6800 Series Switches” on page 37-5 and “Valid Port
Settings on OmniSwitch 6850 Series Switches” on page 37-5 for more information on combo ports. In
addition, refer to the specific Hardware Users Guide for each type of switch.
The following three additional optional combo port modes are user configurable:
• Preferred copper. In this mode, the switch will use the copper RJ-45 port instead of the equivalent fiber
SFP connector, if both ports are enabled and have a valid link.
• Forced fiber. In this mode, the switch will always use the fiber SFP connector instead of the equiva-
lent copper RJ-45 port.
• Forced copper. In this mode, the switch will always use the copper RJ-45 port instead of the equiva-
lent fiber SFP connector.
See “Setting the Combo Port Type and Mode” on page 37-18 for more information on configuring combo
ports.