In this section:
The two MCH cards in slots 1 and 14 provide redundant Ethernet switching operating in ACTIVE/ACTIVE mode, with each MCH managing disjoint subnets.
The MCH cards provide the following functionality:
- MCH IP Ethernet function
MCH platform management function
The MCH IP Ethernet Function
MCH IP functions in ACTIVE/ACTIVE mode. Switches on both MCH cards function at full speed independently from one another. If a switch fails, all IP paths through that switch are unavailable. Application-level provisioning must take this into account in order to avoid single-failure situations.
For example, an Adjacent Diameter Node (ADN) configured using TCP has only one IP path. Should the switch hosting that path fail, the ADN remains out of service until the switch is restored. Configuring the same ADN using SCTP with two endpoints -- one endpoint for each of the two locally provisioned Data IP addresses -- remains active in a single-switch failure situation.
MCH Platform Management Function
MCH platform management functions in ACTIVE/BACKUP mode. The MCH platform management function communicates between the two cards using the external 10/100Base-T ports on the RMC670 μRTM (refer to RMC670 µRTM Interface Connectors). In the event the platform management active MCH fails, the alternate MCH acquires active status with no other effect on system processes.
DSC 8000 VLAN Networks
The DSC Platform operates with VLAN networks, listed in the following table.
DSC 8000 VLAN Networks
| Network | Function | Description |
|---|---|---|
| VLAN1 | Internal backplane connectivity | VLAN1 is configured so the system cards can communicate internally without the traffic leaving the system. |
| VLAN2 | Routing IP traffic | VLAN2 carries Routing IP Network traffic. |
| VLAN3 | Management traffic | VLAN3 carries Management messages. |
| VLAN4 | Routing IP traffic | VLAN4 carries Routing IP Network traffic. |
| VLAN5 | Management traffic | VLAN5 carries management messages. |
| VLAN6 | IMF | VLAN6 carries IMF messages between the DSC 8000 and an external monitoring application. |
| VLAN7 | IMF | VLAN7 carries IMF messages between the DSC 8000 and an external monitoring application. |
| Custom | Custom | User-defined VLAN. |
Note
Custom VLANs are permitted on the DSC 8000 platform. Refer to the Platform Manager Guide for details on how to configure custom VLANs.
DSC 8000 Ethernet Interfaces
The DSC Platform supports internal, external, and shared IP interfaces.
The internal IP interfaces are restricted to VLAN1 and support the following two (2) hard-coded System Area Network (SAN) subnets:
- 192.168.240.<slot number>
- 192.168.241.<slot number>
The internal network is private, and the IP interfaces are inaccessible to systems outside of the DSC Platform. All internal subnet IP interfaces are statically pre-configured on each system card, where the specific address within the subnet is determined with Auto-Detect using the slot number where the card resides.
The external IP interfaces (p19p1.3, p19p2.5, p19p1.2, p19p2.4, and may include p19p1.6, p19p2.7 if the system is configured for IMF) are allocated to the two (2) required Management and the two (2) required default Routing CPUs. If the system is equipped with additional Routing CPUs, then additional external IP interfaces are supported for each of these CPUs (p19p1.2, p19p2.4, and may include p19p1.6, p19p2.7 if the system is configured for IMF).
The shared IP interfaces on the two (2) Management CPUs are as follows.
- Management CPU in slot 2 is p19p1.3:0
- Management CPU in slot 13 is p19p2.5:0
The Management CPU card that boots first takes control of the shared IP interface. The unique IP interface periodically pings the gateways that were entered when you configured the management IP interface to confirm connectivity. If this Management CPU is removed from the chassis for any reason, the remaining Management CPU takes over. Users connected to the Web UI may be asked to log onto the system again to resume their activities.
If one of the MCH cards (AMC671) is extracted, the switchover of management traffic to the other MCH card is seamless and there is no time delay.
Note
It is recommended that between 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps bandwidth is reserved for Ribbon Signaling Systems' Management Network. However, if this bandwidth is used for data such as log forwarding, the link transmitting the data can quickly be saturated which may result in network congestion and poor performance.
DSC 8000 Subnetwork Configuration
Each Ethernet interface on any AMC124 CPU card and the corresponding remote node must be configured on a separate subnetwork (that is, subnet) through different gateways; hence, ensuring that IP traffic on these subnets remains segregated.
The following figure shows the logical representation of the DSC Platform Control shelf Ethernet configuration.
DSC 8000 Ethernet Port Mapping
The following table provides a listing of the internal and external IP interface configuration.
Caution
Do not change the Ethernet configuration shown in the following table, Ethernet Port Mapping (Control Shelf). Otherwise, the system may not perform as expected. If this configuration conflicts with the existing network configuration on your system, contact Customer Support.
Note
The Ethernet configuration is the same for the Expansion shelves with the exception that these shelves are not equipped with the Routing and Management CPUs that are required for the Control shelf.
DSC 8000 Ethernet Port Mapping (Control Shelf)
DSC 8000 Dual Ethernet Ports (FP3 and FP4)
Ethernet redundancy is already built into the DSC Platform through the two MCH AMC671 cards in slots 1 and 14.
For failover scenarios, the DSC Platform also supports dual ports, FP3 and FP4 (System Card Descriptions), to ensure that there is no interruption to Ethernet traffic if one of these ports becomes out-of-service for some reason. If the Ethernet links on FP3 fail, the traffic is automatically rerouted to FP4. If the connectivity is re-established on FP3, the traffic is not immediately rerouted through this port. Traffic is only rerouted back to FP3, if FP4 subsequently fails.
Only one of the two ports is active at all times, provided that at least one of the associated Ethernet interfaces (p19p1.2 or p19p2.4) has connectivity to the remote end.
DSC 8000 Ports Physical Connections in a Shelf
Sections AMC671 MCH Interface Connectors and RMC670 µRTM Interface Connectors show the physical connections to the AMC671 and RMC670 (µRTM).
DSC 8000 Physical Connection between Shelves
The cabling connections for communication between the DSC 8000 shelves on the MCH cards is made using the 10Gbps FP1 and FP2 ports. For specifications on these cables, refer to Installing Communication Cables.
DSC 8000 Inter-shelf Connections
Overview
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