Design — My EtherealMind

Bumper SDN/OpenFlow Roundup on Links for ONS 2012

22nd April 2012 By bookmarks Leave a Comment

Internets of Interest is a conceit of mine where I collect useful, relevant or just fun places on the Internet and a bit commentary about what I’ve found interesting about them. With the Open Network Summit 2012 happening last week, there was an avalanche of hype from the mainstream press. I’ve attempted to pick something off [...]

Filed Under: Bookmarks, OpenFlow, Uncategorized Tagged With: Bookmarks, Design, openflow, SDN

Quote of the Day About Spanning Tree

12th March 2012 By Greg Ferro 2 Comments

Quote of the Day about Spanning Tree

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Design, stp

Tech Notes: Juniper QFabric – A Perspective on Scaling Up

14th February 2012 By Greg Ferro 11 Comments

Juniper QFabric is a new approach to Ethernet Switch Fabrics. When it was announced last year,it was noted that the underlying physical design is a completely different approach to building Switch Fabrics. Here I’m taking a loosely research based approach to understand how Juniper QFabric is different from all other approaches to the problem, and also a look at some of the challenges ahead.

Filed Under: Blessay, Blog, Design, Tech Notes Tagged With: Design, ethernet, fabric, juniper, network design

Can Fibre Optic Ethernet Cables Be Longer Than the Standard ?

1st January 2012 By Greg Ferro 8 Comments

Short Answer is “It depends, but usually yes.” Long answer follows with a discussion of launch power, receiver sensitivity, and cable losses.

Filed Under: Basics, Design, Featured, Operation Tagged With: basics, Design, ethernet

Webinar on SDN & OpenFlow – Sponsored by Big Switch – Open Attendance

5th December 2011 By Greg Ferro 2 Comments

I’m pleased to announce that Big Switch have agreed to sponsor SDN & OpenFlow Webinar on February 7th, 2012 and that the event will be free and open to anyone to attend.

Are you a Network Architect or Designer ? Are you responsible for strategy, long term vision, or simply keeping track of upcoming technologies ? If so, you will need to know more about OpenFlow and Software Defined Networking and how it impacts the future of Networking in software and hardware.

And now, thanks to sponsorship from BigSwitch Networks, anyone can attend.

Ipspace openflow webinar 20111204

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Tagged With: Design, openflow, SDN, training, webinar

Ethernet Jumbo Frames, Full Duplex and Why Jumbo Frames Are 9000 Bytes)

3rd December 2011 By Greg Ferro 19 Comments

I’ve been doing some research into Ethernet and the use of Jumbo frames for some content I’ve been writing and come across something interesting. The documents state that Jumbo frames can only be used on Full Duplex Ethernet connections.

Filed Under: Blog, Musing, Storage Tagged With: Design, ethernet, Operation

Modular Data Centre – On the Highway

22nd November 2011 By Greg Ferro 5 Comments

Saw this modular data centre rolling down the highway today.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: data, datacenter, Design, Operation

Problems With Cat6A Cables in Data Center

14th November 2011 By Greg Ferro 14 Comments

I was reading a white paper by Panduit that claims that 10GBaseT is suitable for use. I’ve been critical of Cat6A cable and believe that it’s not suitable for data centre use.

Filed Under: Blog, Design Tagged With: data centre, Design

Cisco Nexus 5000 / 2000 Pricing Bundles and Fabric Extension Transceivers (FETs) vs 10GbaseSR SFPs.

3rd November 2011 By Greg Ferro 16 Comments

Recently I noticed that Cisco is selling “Fabric Ethernet Transceivers” for the Nexus switch family. Some research shows that these are replacements for 10GBaseSX SFP modules. Importantly, it’s cheaper to install new cabling than to buy 10BaseSR SFP+ modules.

Filed Under: Blessay, Blog, Cisco, Design Tagged With: Cisco, Design

Requirements Terminology – Defining MUST, SHOULD and MAY

20th September 2011 By Greg Ferro 3 Comments

One of the problems of working with the PRINCE2 practitioners is that the people tend to get highly focussed on definitions in the Scope of Works. A Scope of Works defines what the deliverables the customer is to received.

The problem with a Scope of Works is that it is usually prepared before the work is started and/or fully understood. maybe you have a Gap Analysis, or a Consulting Reports or a Requirements Document to setup the initial engagement (every company has their own name of the same thing).

Filed Under: Blog, Opinion Tagged With: Design, work life