| For the first part of the question, see the announcements for the
DEFMI and DEFMM; they support redundant optical links.
If I understand your question correctly (we'll see...) then you can't,
but you can accomplish what you want (I think).
Your customer asked if this was ok:
+-----------+ +-----------+
| | | |
| A | | B |
| | | | A, B, C, & D
| |+| | | |+| | are repeaters
+-|-|-----#-+ +-#-----|-|-+ (in hubs or not)
| | ####################### | |
| \ / |
| \ ___________/ | Thin lines are fiber.
| \_______________ / __________ |
| _________________/ \ | ### is a repeater link
| / \ |
| | | |
+-|-|-------+ +-------|-|-+
| | | | | | | |
| C | | D |
| | | |
| | | |
+-----------+ +-----------+
The answer here is that it is not ok; for a redundant link pair
(shown here as '|+|') to operate correctly both ends must go to a
single pair of devices, not three as shown here. The problem is
(for example) that a path A->B->C->A exists.
But there are two ways of getting what you need; read on...
If you don't mind bridges, then the same configuration works, but
the devices connecting hubs are bridges. Spanning tree will deal
with the extra links to prevent loops:
+-----------+ +-----------+
| | | |
| A | | B |
| | | | A, B, C, & D
| | | | | | | | are bridges
+-|-|-----#-+ +-#-----|-|-+ (in hubs or not)
| | ####################### | |
| \ / |
| \ ___________/ | Thin lines are fiber.
| \_______________ / __________ |
| _________________/ \ | ### is a repeater link
| / \ |
| | | |
+-|-|-------+ +-------|-|-+
| | | | | | | |
| C | | D |
| | | |
| | | |
+-----------+ +-----------+
If you don't want bridges, then you can do this:
+-----------+ +-----------+
| | | |
| A | | B |
| | | | A, B, C, & D
| |+| | | |+| | are repeaters
+-|-|-----#-+ +-#-----|-|-+ (in hubs or not)
| | ####################### | |
| | | |
| | | | Thin lines are fiber.
| | | |
| | | | ### is a repeater link
| | | |
| | | |
+-|-|-------+ +-------|-|-+
| |+| | | |+| |
| C | | D |
| | | |
| | | |
+-----------+ +-----------+
Which deals with link failures but not hub failures.
|
| The DEFMI and DEFMM will be announced next Tuesday, Feb 8 with a 60-90
day availability as I'm expecting FCS in April and volume availability
in May. Since it sounds like this is too late for you, when does your
customer need to have his equipment installed, and how many do you need?
Regards,
Cathy
|