Overview

The Brocade award-winning FastIron® Workgroup Switch X-series (FWSX) products—the FastIron Workgroup Switch X424 (FWSX424) and the FastIron Workgroup Switch X448 (FWSX448)—provide greater flexibility, higher reliability, enhanced security, extensive redundancy, and a new level of high performance by combining Gigabit Over Copper (GoC) and 10-Gigabit Ethernet, while simplifying network management complexity and reducing on-going training expenses. The FWS X-series increases a network's return on investment (ROI) and decreases total cost of ownership (TCO) by offering improved functionality through a common feature set controlled by industry-standard Command Line Interface (CLI) syntax, all in a compact (1.5 Rack Units) form factor at industry-leading prices. The FWS X-series is an advanced hardware platform that can be installed with 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10-GbE), to provide high speed networking for today's enterprise and service provider networks. The FWS X-series is the ideal networking platform to deliver 10-GbE from the edge to the core.

The Brocade FWS X-series establishes the next benchmark in delivering high density GoC with 10-Gigabit Ethernet upgradeability for today's enterprise and service provider network. Specifically, the FWS X-series establishes the industry's leading price-performance value for fixed Ethernet solutions with the addition of removable and replaceable 10-Gigabit Ethernet modules in a 1.5 Rack Unit (RU) form factor. The FWS X-series can be initially installed using four "Small Form-Factor Pluggable" (SFP) Gigabit Ethernet ports, and then later upgraded to support one or two "10-Gigabit Small Form Factor Pluggable" (XFP) modules.

To meet existing and emerging network requirements, the FWS X-series delivers a full complement of standards-based and advanced Layer 2 features. These features include hardware and software resilience, complete quality of service (QoS) controls including prioritization and rate limiting, standard and extended ACLs, integrated Gigabit over Copper (GoC) Ethernet ports, and more. The advanced feature sets include the award-winning Brocade Metro Ring Protocol, SuperSpan, and sFlow to support more complex network requirements.

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Features

High-Availability Features for Resiliancy

• Redundant, hot-swappable load-sharing power supplies—Increase system reliability and circuit redundancy
• Superior Layer 1 Resiliency—Includes Ethernet section and link and path failure analysis. Link Fault Signaling and Remote Fault Notification instantly alerts connected devices of physical failures. Unidirectional Link Detection detects link layer failures between Brocade switches and detects cable faults.
• Superior Layer 2 Redundancy—Virtual Switch Redundancy Protocol (VSRP), Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) based on IEEE 802.1w and link aggregation based on IEEE 802.3ad for rapid convergence, minimal network downtime and minimal packet loss

Advanced Layer 2 Features

• Extensive Spanning Tree Protocol Features
  • Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol based on IEEE 802.1w: Sub-second convergence using a pre-calculated failover link.
  • Fast Uplink Span: Four-second convergence on uplink ports on wiring closet switches.
  • Single-instance STP: Support for third-party devices that run a single STP instance
  • Per VLAN Spanning Tree (PVST): Multiple spanning tree instances within a single system for VLAN load-sharing and increased network reliability
  • Topology Groups: Goes beyond PVGST to scale all supported Layer 2 control protocols including STP, RSTP, MRP and VSRP while providing the ability to isolate the provider from any subscriber-influenced changes
• Virtual Switch Redundancy Protocol (VSRP)—Offers an alternative to spanning tree-based designs and provides sub-second fault detection and fail-over protocol for mesh topologies. VSRP works in conjunction with MRP to provide SONET-like resiliency required for critical Data Center and Metro Ethernet networks and protects against link or switch failures
• Link Aggregation based on IEEE 802.3ad—Logical links Containing up to four Gigabit Ethernet or two 10-GbE Links to scale bandwidth and protect against link, port or interface module failure
• Metro Ring Protocol (MRP)—Provides sub-second fault detection and fail-over specifically for Metro Ethernet ring topologies as an alternative to spanning tree-based designs. MRP works in conjunction with VSRP and 802.3ad based link aggregation to provide bandwidth scalability and SONET-like resiliency in Metro Ethernet networks.
• Super Aggregated VLANs (SAV)—Allows service providers to decouple the provider VLAN domains from customer VLAN domains. SAV allows the provider to tunnel and preserve the s subscriber VLANs by stacking VLAN tags (Q-in-Q). SAV is also known as Carrier VLAN.
• Mirror/Monitor Port—Aids fault isolation with monitoring and troubleshooting of single or multiple switch ports without disruption to existing traffic flows.
• Comprehensive Multicast Feature Set
  • IGMP and PIM Snooping to limit flooding of multicast traffic at the edge and the aggregation.
  • Support for IGMP v1, v2, and v3.
  • Scaling up to 4096 multicast groups.

IronShield Security Solutions

• Comprehensive set of security features for connectivity and access control.
• Multilevel access security on the console
• Secure Web-based management interface preventing unauthorized users from accessing or changing the switch configuration.
• Terminal Access Controller Access Control Systems (TACACS/TACACS+).
• RADIUS authentication.
• Secure Shell version 2 and SNMPv3 to further restrict and encrypt communications to the management interface and system.
• L2/3/4 ACLs and binding the ACL to TELNET, Web-Management, and SNMP interfaces.
• 802.1x Authentication, including multi-device authentication, and dynamic VLAN, ACL, and MAC Filter assignment for authentication clients.
• IP Source Guard which, along with DHCP Snooping and ARP inspection, help to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks from rogue elements.
• Private VLANs at the edge provide security and isolation between switch ports to help ensure that users cannot snoop on other users' traffic.
• ICMP and TCP SYN Rate Limiting allows the administrator to monitor, throttle, and lock out ICMP and TCP SYN traffic both to the management address of the switch and for traffic transiting the system.

Advanced Quality of Service

• Classification, reclassification, policing and marking the traffic prior to delivery
• Identification, classification, and reclassification based on specific criteria such as port, source/destination Media Access Control (MAC) address, 802.1p priority bit, source/destination IP address, Type of Service (ToS), Differentiated Services Control Point (DSCP) fields, or the Transmission Control Protocol/User Datagram Protocol (TCP/UDP) port.
• Flexible queue servicing utilizing weighted adjustable Round Robin (WRR), Strict Priority (SP), or combined SP with WRR.
• 8 hardware queues delivering complete flexibility of control over high priority applications such as voice and video.
• Rate Limiting including input-port fixed rate-limiting and rate limiting controlled by regular and extended ACLs.
• Rate Limiting policies can be applied on a per-port, per-VLAN basis, providing more flexibility to the network administrator in controlling traffic flow and bandwidth usage throughout the network.
• Support for up to 256 wire-speed ingress traffic policers with each policer supporting configurable metering with maximum and burst size settings, color aware and out-of-profile packet remarking or dropping.
• Egress Traffic Shaping-Control the rate of traffic leaving the edge.

Includes sFlow™ – the industry standard for network traffic monitoring – to deliver hardware-based and real-time network traffic monitoring, inline intrusion detection, fault and performance management, capacity planning, security policing, and precise network traffic accounting on all ports from Layer 2 up to Layer 4.

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Specifications

Standards Compliance

• 802.1d Bridging
• 802.1D-1998
• 802.1q/p VLAN Tagging and Priority
• 802.1w Rapid Spanning Tree
• 802.1X Port-based Authentication, Dynamic VLAN, ACL, and MAC Filter Group Assignment
• 802.3 10Base-T
• 802.3 Ethernet Like MIB
• 802.3ad Link Aggregation (Dynamic and Static) and Trunk Groups
• 802.3u 100Base-TX
• 802.3z 1000Base-SX/LX/T
• 802.3ae 10-Gigabit Ethernet

Layer 2 Features

• 4,096VLANs
• 16,000 MAC Addresses
• ProtocolVLAN (802.1v), PrivateVLAN, SubnetVLAN
• Port Security (MAC Address Locking)
• Layer 2 ACLs
• Dual Mode VLANs
• Fast Port Span
• Protected-link
• Generic VLAN Registration Protocol
• MAC-Layer Filtering
• Mirror/Monitor Ports
• Per VLAN STP (PVST/PVST+)
• VLAN Groups
• Single-instance Spanning Tree
• Metro Ring Protocol (MRP)
• Virtual Switch Redundancy Protocol (VSRP)
• Uni-Directional Link Detection (UDLD)
• Jumbo Frames up to 9,216 bytes

Quality of Service

• 802.1p Mapping to Priority Queue
• MAC Address Mapping to Priority Queue
• ACL Mapping to Priority Queue
• ACL Mapping to ToS/DSCP
• ACL Mapping and Marking of ToS/DSCP
• DiffServ Support
• QoS Queue Management Using Weighted Round Robin and Strict Priority

Management and Control

• 802.3 MAU MIB (RFC 2239)
• Architecture for Describing SNMP Framework (RFC 2571)
• BootP (RFC 951 & RFC 1542)
• BootP/DHCP Relay (RFC 2131)
• Bridge MIB (RFC 1493)
• Configuration Logging
• Ethernet Interface MIB (RFC 1643)
• Ethernet MIB (RFC 1643)
• HTTP (RFC 2068)
• ICMP Router Discovery Protocol (RFC 1256)
• Industry Standard Command Line Interface (CLI)
• Integration with HP OpenView for Sun Solaris, HP-UX, IBM's AIX, and Windows NT Standalone Windows NT
• IP Forwarding Table MIB (RFC 1354)
• IronView Network Manager (INM) Web based graphical user interface
• Embedded Web Management
• sFlow (RFC 3176)
• MIB-II (RFC 1213)
• Repeater MIB (RFC 1516)
• RIPv2 MIB (RFC 1724)
• RMON MIB (RFC 1757)
• SNMP Message Processing and Dispatching (RFC 2572)
• SNMP MIB II (RFC 1573)
• SNMP View-based Access Control Model SNMP (RFC 2575)
• SNMPv1/v2c (RFC 1157)
• SNMPv3 Applications (RFC 2573)
• SNMPv3 Intro to Framework (RFC 2570)
• SNMPv3 User-based Security Model (RFC 2574)
• SNTP Simple Network Time Protocol (RFC 4330)
• Support for Multiple syslog Servers
• TELNET (RFC 854)
• TFTP (RFC 783)
• P-Bridge and Q-Bridge (RFC 2674)

Element Security Options

• Authentication, Authorization, & Accounting (AAA)
• Bi-level Access Mode (Standard and EXEC Level)
• Protection for Denial of Service attacks
• RADIUS
• Secure Copy (SCP)
• Secure Shell
• TACACS/TACACS+
• Username/Password

Performance

• FWSX424:
  • Switching Capacity 88-Gbps
  • Forwarding Rate 65-Mpps
• FWSX448:
  • Switching Capacity 136-Gbps
  • Forwarding Rate 101-Mpps

Physical Dimensions

• FWSX424:
  2.63" (H) x 17.5" (W) x 19.6" (D)
  6.68cm (H) x 44.45cm (W) x 49.78cm (D)
• FWSX448:
  2.63" (H) x 17.5" (W) x 19.6" (D)
  6.68cm (H) x 44.45cm (W) x 49.78cm (D)

Weight

• FWSX424:
  • 25 lbs (11.36 kg) Fully Loaded including dual redundant power
  • 17.5 lbs (7.95 kg) Empty
• FWSX448:
  • 29 lbs (11.36 kg) Fully Loaded including dual redundant power
  • 17.5 lbs (7.95 kg) Empty

Environmental Ranges

• Acoustic: 47dB
• Operating temperature: 32° to 104°F (0° to 40°C)
• Relative Humidity: 5% to 90%,non-condensing
• Storage temperature: -23° to 158°F (-25° to 70°C)
• Maximum Watts: 220W (750 BTU/Hr) per supply for the FWSX424 and 600W (2,047 BTU/Hr) per supply for the FWSX448
• Storage altitude: 10,000ft (3,000m) maximum

Power Requirements

• FWSX424 AC input voltage: 100vAC @ 3.5A MAX, 240vAC @ 1.5A MAX, 50-60Hz per auto-sensing, auto-switching power supply
• FWSX424 DC input voltage: -40 to -60 vDC @ 8A MAX
• FWSX448 AC input voltage: 100vAC @ 9A MAX, 240vAC @ 2.5A MAX, 50-60Hz per auto-sensing, auto-switching power supply

Safety Certifications

• EN 60950
• CAN/CS-C22.2 No.60950-00
• EN 60825-1 Safety of Laser Products—Part 1
• EN 60825-2 Safety of Laser Products—Part 2
• IEC 950
• UL 1950 Third Edition
• CSA 950

Electromagnetic Emission Certifications

• FCC Class A (Part 15)
• EN 55022/CISPR-22 Class A
• VCCI Class A

Immunity

• Generic: EN 50082-1

Warranty

• 5-Year Limited Lifetime Hardware Warranty
• 90-days Software

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System Options

• FWSX424: 20 10/100/1000-Mbps ports, 4-port Combo GbE that can be used as 10/100/1000 or SFP ports to support SX, LX, LHA, and CWDM Gigabit Ethernet optics. Orderable or field-upgradeable to include a 1-port or 2-port 10-GbE module that supports 1 or 2 XFP ports for use with SR, LR, and ER 10-GbE optics. Occupies 1.5 RU, and includes one hot-swappable, field replaceable AC power supply. An additional power supply can be added to deliver 1+1 redundancy. Includes support for jumbo frames of up to 9,216 bytes. Advanced Layer 2 switching.
• FWSX448: 44 10/100/1000-Mbps ports, 4-port Combo GbE that can be used as 10/100/1000 or SFP ports to support SX, LX, LHA, and CWDM Gigabit Ethernet optics. Orderable or field-upgradeable to include a 1-port or a 2-port 10-GbE module that supports 1 or 2 XFP ports for use with SR, LR, and ER 10-GbE optics. Occupies 1.5 RU, and includes one hot-swappable, field replaceable AC power supply. An additional power supply can be added to deliver 1+1 redundancy. Includes support for jumbo frames of up to 9,216 bytes. Advanced Layer 2 switching.

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Literature

Datasheets

• FastIron Workgroup Edge X Series Datasheet (PDF 216K)
• Optics Family (PDF 171K)

White Papers

• Leveraging the Advantages of a Multi-vendor Network Strategy (PDF 181K)
• Multicast Deployment Guide (PDF 187K)

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