Extreme Brings Hibernation To Network Blades

Extreme Networks has launched new modules for its 8800 data centre chassis switch which allow nearly 600 10Gig Ethernet ports in a rack, and have a hibernation mode – which Extreme says is a first for network equipment.

The new Black Diamond 8900 modules have 128Gbps or 80Gbps overall throughput, and are designed to up the capacity of chassis switches placed to aggregate connections at the end of server-room rows. The 1U Gigabit module can support 96 Gigabit ports, using 16 of the new MRJ21 sockets, which each support six RJ45 Ethernet connections through a branching connector.

The units also break new green networking ground, with a hibernation mode, under which they can go to a sleep state when there is no traffic. This could drastically reduce power consumption in data centres where the traffic is bursty, or where a company needs to have a dual data centre on “hot standby” – by allowing the standby data centre to be not-quite-so-hot, according to Extreme vice president Paul Hooper.

Even in normal use, Extreme switches save power, he says: “Our equipment uses one third the power of Cisco switches and one half the power of Foundry switches.”