Mellanox MLNX-OS User Manual for SX1018HP Ethernet Managed Blade Switch

Rev 2.10
Mellanox Technologies
382
Mellanox Technologies Confidential
5 Ethernet Switching
5.1 Interface
Interface Ethernet have the following physical set of configurable parameters
• Admin state – enabling or disabling the interface.
• Flow control – admin state per direction (send or receive)
• MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) – (1518-9216 bytes)
• Speed – 1/10/40/56GbE (depends on the interface type and
system)
•
Description – user defined string
• Module-type – the type of the module plugged in the interface
5.1.1 Break-Out Cables
The Break-out Cable is a unique Mellanox capability, where a single physical 40Gbps port is
divided into 2x10Gbps or 4x10Gbps ports. It maximizes the flexibility of the end user to use the
Mellanox switch with a combination of 10Gbps and 40Gbps interfaces according to the specific
requirements of its network. Certain ports cannot be split at all and there are ports which can be
split into 2 ports only. Splitting a port changes the notation of that port from x/y to x/y/z with “x/
y” indicating the previous notation of the port prior to the split and “z” indicating the number of
the resulting 10G port (1,2 or 1,2,3,4). Each sub-physical port is then handled as an individual
port. For example: splitting port 10 into 4 will give the following new ports: 1/10/1, 1/10/2, 1/10/
3, 1/10/4.
Figure 10: Break-Out Cable
A split-4 operation results in blocking a 40G port in addition to the one being split. A set of hard-
ware restrictions determine which of th
e ports can be split.