Overview of Brocade 6520
The Brocade 6520 is a 96-port auto-sensing 2, 4, 8, or 16 Gbps, as well as 10 Gbps, Fibre Channel (FC) switch that
delivers the latest Brocade multi-chip architecture for Fibre Channel Storage Area Networks (SANs). The Brocade
6520 is an enterprise-class switch that is designed to handle the large-scale SAN requirements of an enterprise, and
can also be used to address the SAN requirements of a small to medium-sized workgroup.
The Brocade 6520 provides up to 96 ports in a double height (2U) switch that enables the creation of very dense
fabrics in a relatively small space.
The Brocade 6520 offers Ports on Demand (POD) licensing as well. “Base” models of the switch contain 48 ports,
and up to two additional 24-port POD licenses can be purchased to fill all 96 ports.
Port activation works through a process called Dynamic Ports on Demand (DPOD). With DPOD, ports are licensed as
they come online. For instance, if you have a base model with 48 port licenses, the first 48 ports to come online,
regardless of their numbering, are licensed. Once all the licenses have been assigned, you can manually move those
licenses from one port to another if you choose.
The first eight ports can be configured to run at 10 Gbps with the appropriate licensing.
The Brocade 6520 supplies Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability (RAS) performance and scalability
requirements of an enterprise switch along with interoperability and ease-of-use advantages.
The Brocade 6520 is only 24 inches deep and has airflow direction options. You can order either port side exhaust
(the default configuration) or non-port side exhaust airflow to accommodate specific installations.
The Brocade 6520 offers the following features and capabilities:
� Up to 96 auto-sensing ports of high-performance 16 Gbps technology in a single domain.
� Ports on Demand scaling from 48 to 72 or 96 ports.
� Port licensing via DPOD
� 2, 4, 8, and 16 Gbps auto-sensing Fibre Channel switch and router ports.
- 2, 4, and 8 Gbps performance is enabled by 8 Gbps SFP+ transceivers.
- 4, 8, and 16 Gbps performance is enabled by 16 Gbps SFP+ transceivers.
� 10 Gbps manual set capability on FC ports (requires the optional 10 Gigabit FCIP/FibreChannel license) on the
first eight ports only.
- Ports can be configured for 10 Gbps for metro connectivity.
- 10 Gbps performance is enabled by 10 Gbps Fibre Channel SFP+ transceivers.
� FC ports will self-configure as E_ports and F_ports. EX_ports can be activated on a per-port basis with the
optional Integrated Routing license.
- Mirror ports (M_ports) and diagnostic ports (D_ports) must be manually configured.
- The Brocade Diagnostic Port (D_port) feature provides physical media diagnostic,
troubleshooting, and verification services.
� In-flight data compression and encryption on up to 16 ports (up to 8 ports at 16 Gbps) provides efficient link
utilization and security.
� Options for port side exhaust (default) or non-port side exhaust airflow for cooling.
� Virtual Fabric (VF) support to improve isolation between different VFs.
� Fibre Channel Routing (FCR) service, available with the optional Integrated Routing license, provides
improved scalability and fault isolation.
� Inter-Switch Link (ISL) Trunking (licensable), which allows up to eight ports (at 2, 4, 8, or 16
Gbps speeds) between a pair of switches combined to form a single, logical ISL with a speed of up to 128
Gbps (256 Gbps full duplex) for optimal bandwidth utilization and load balancing. There is no limit to how
many trunk groups can be configured.
• Dynamic Path Selection (DPS), which optimizes fabric-wide performance and load balancing by automatically
routing data to the most efficient available path in the fabric.
• Brocade-branded SFP+ optical transceivers that support any combination of Short Wavelength (SWL) and