Brocade Increases Ethernet Port Density

In addition to beefing up its switching portfolio, Brocade is providing new scale for its MLXe core router platform. The MLXe was first announcedin 2010 with support for up to 32 ports of 100 GbE and 256 ports of 10 GbE.

Brocade is now announcing a new 10 GbE module that will triple the number of ports that can run on an MLXe, with a new 24 port 10 GbE module. With the new module, up to 768 ports of 10 GbE can run on a single MLXe chassis.

“This triples the scale, without a forklift upgrade,” Ananda Rajagopal, senior director product management at Brocade told EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet.

The new ports are powered by Brocade’s MaxScale ASIC technology, which is the company’s fourth generation high-performance packet processor silicon. The new ASIC also delivers power savings of up 57 percent per port.

The IronWare 5.4 Operating System underpins the updated MLXe and will now support OpenFlow which could enable the MLXe to be the core router of a Software Defined Networking (SDN) deployment.

Read the full story at EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet:
Brocade Scales Up Ethernet Fabric

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.