Brocade Extended Fabrics

Bringing together remote offices, Brocade Extended Fabrics is activated with a license for sites at a distance of 10 kilometers or more. It enables ISLs at distances up to 120 kilometers over dark fibre or Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) connections at full bandwidth, supporting disaster recovery and business continuity operations.

Fibre Channel-based networking technology has revitalised the reliability and performance of server and storage environments - providing a robust infrastructure to meet the most demanding business requirements. In addition to improving reliability and performance, Fibre Channel provides the capability to distribute server and storage connections over distances up to 30 kilometers using enhanced long-wave optics and dark fiber - enabling SAN deployment in campus environments.

However, today’s organsations often require SAN deployment over distances well beyond 30 kilometers to support distributed facilities and stricter business continuance requirements. To address these extended distance SAN requirements, Brocade® offers the innovative Extended Fabrics software.

A better way to extend connectivity

Fabric interconnectivity over Fibre Channel at longer distances: Inter-Switch Links (ISLs) or Inter-Fabric Links (IFLs) use dark fiber or DWDM connections to transfer data. As Fibre Channel speeds increase, the maximum distance decreases for each switch. However, the latest Brocade 8 Gbit/sec technology sets a new benchmark for extended distances - up to 3400 kilometers at 1 Gbit/sec and 425 kilometers at 8 Gbit/sec - to move more data over longer distances at a lower cost.
Simplified management over distance: Each device attached to the SAN appears as a local device, an approach that simplifies deployment and administration
A comprehensive management environment: All management traffic flows through internal SAN connections, so the fabric can be managed from a single administrator console using Brocade Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Manager (EFCM), Fabric Manager, or the Web Tools switch management utility.

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