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Passport 8000 Family Enterprise Switch Product Brief
Operational Simplicity
The Passport 8000 chassis provides
simplified installation and maintenance,
with power supplies, fan trays and all
system and interface modules being
accessible from the front of the chassis.
The system supports scalable switching
bandwidth up to 128 Gbps and a wide
range of interface types, including
Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Packet
over Synchronous Optical Network
(SONET), and Asynchronous Transer
Mode (ATM). Multi-Link Trunking
(MLT) provides scalable riser, server, and
inter-switch bandwidth up to 16 Gbps.
Effective control of bandwidth-hungry
IP Multicast applications is automatically
provided using standard IETF protocols
such as Distance Vector Multicast
Routing Protocol (DVMRP) and Internet
Group Management Protocol (IGMP).
Policy services and prioritization for critical
applications are easily implemented and
monitored on the Passport 8600 using
Optivity* end-to-end policy management.
Intelligent agents in the Passport 8600
interface modules provide IEEE 802.1p
Class of Service (CoS) and IETF
Differentiated Service (DiffServ) support
to prioritize applications across the network,
with up to 8 queues per port available to
carry the different types of traffic.
Configuration and management of
Passport 8000 switches is supported by
Nortel Networks’ industry and market-
leading Optivity network management
system and a common Command Line
Interface (CLI) across the Nortel
Networks enterprise product families.
Every Passport 8000 switch port also
supports 4 groups of Remote Monitoring
(RMON) and Conversation Steering for
use with Optivity web-enabled probes,
enabling network managers to diagnose
problems without leaving their desks.
Low Cost of Ownership
The Passport 8000 chassis provides
a single integrated platform to meet
all LAN and MAN requirements.
Passport 8000 provides easy front-access
to all system components and interface
modules, reducing floor-space requirements
in wiring closets and data centers.
System components are common to both
6- and 10-slot chassis, and many interface
modules are shared with other Nortel
Networks switches, reducing sparing and
maintenance costs. Passport 8000 provides
scalable switching bandwidth up to 128
Gbps together with system and interface
modules for edge switching, core routing
switching, and multi-service MAN
connectivity. Network managers can
deploy Passport 8000 with the knowledge
that Nortel Networks is able to provide
unmatched technology and applications
to reduce the total cost of ownership
of the network.
Passport 8000 Features
High Availability
• Fully redundant chassis:
N+1 power, dual fan-trays
• Choice of AC or DC power
• Hot-swap of chassis components,
such as power supplies and fan-trays
• Hot-swap of Switch Fabric/CPU modules:
See module datasheets for details
• Hot-swap of interface modules:
See module datasheets for details
• Resilient riser, backbone, and server
connections using Distributed Multi-
Link Trunking (MLT) and LinkSafe
• Enhanced Spanning Tree FastStart
to reduce convergence time on
Layer 2 links
• Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol
(VRRP) to provide load-balancing
and automatic recovery from default
gateway failure in the Passport 8600
Operational Simplicity
• All chassis components, including system
and interface modules, accessible from
the front of the chassis
• Switch capacity scalable up to
128 Gbps, 256 Gbps in the future
• Non-blocking, wire-speed switching
and routing for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet
and Gigabit Ethernet
• The Passport 8600 features eXpress
Classification (XC): Wire-speed filtering
for security and traffic classification
based on Layer 2, 3 or 4 information
• Multi-Link Trunking (MLT) to
increase riser, backbone, and server
scalability by aggregating up to 8 ports
to form a single high-performance link
of up to 16 Gbps capacity in the
Passport 8600
• Efficient, automatic control of
Multicast applications using standard
IETF protocols, with hardware
scaling up to 16,000 Multicast groups
per switch in the Passport 8600
• Support for Optivity device, network,
configuration, and service level
management, including common
Command Line Interface
• Support for Optivity end-to-end
policy management
• Support for up to 8 queues per port,
with IEEE 802.1p Class of Service
and IETF Differentiated Services
in the Passport 8600
Low Cost of Ownership
• Future-proof chassis with built-in
support for future technologies
• Common sparing for chassis, power
supplies, fan-trays, and interface
modules reduces maintenance and
support costs
• Web-based Optivity device
and network management
• Support for Optivity end-to-end
policy management
