22
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.
The switch can provide 10-GE IRF connections through 1/10GBASE-T Ethernet ports/SFP+ ports,
and you can bind several 1/10GBASE-T Ethernet ports/SFP+ ports to an IRF port for increased
bandwidth and availability.
Figure 21 and Figure 22 show the topologies of an IRF fabric made up of three switches. The IRF
port connections in the two figures are for illustration only, and more connection methods are
available.
Figure 21 IRF fabric in daisy chain topology
Figure 22 IRF fabric in ring topology
IRF-port1
IRF-port2
IRF-port1
IRF-port2
1
2
1 2
3
3
IRF-port1
IRF-port2
IRF-port1
IRF-port1
IRF-port2
IRF-port2
1
2
3
1
2 3
To Next Page
Loading...
