4-3
Planning IRF topology and connections
You can create an IRF fabric in daisy chain topology or more reliable ring topology. In ring topology,
the failure of one IRF link does not cause the IRF fabric to split as in daisy chain topology. Instead,
the IRF fabric changes to a daisy chain topology without interrupting network services.
You connect the IRF member switches through IRF ports, the logical interfaces for the connections
between IRF member switches. Each IRF member switch has two IRF ports: IRF-port 1 and IRF-port
2. To use an IRF port, you must bind a minimum of one physical port to it.
When connecting two neighboring IRF member switches, you must connect the physical ports of
IRF-port 1 on one switch to the physical ports of IRF-port 2 on the other switch. See Table4-1 for the
available IRF physical ports. You can bind several IRF physical ports to an IRF port for increased
bandwidth and availability.
Figure4-2 and Figure4-3 show the topologies of an IRF fabric made up of three S5170-28S-EI
switches. The IRF port connections in the two figures are for illustration only, and more connection
methods are available.
Figure4-2 IRF fabric in daisy chain topology
Figure4-3 IRF fabric in ring topology
IRF-port1
IRF-port2
IRF-port1
IRF-port2
1
2
3
1
2 3
1
2
3
IRF-port1
IRF-port2
IRF-port1
IRF-port1
IRF-port2
IRF-port2
1
2 3
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