Organizations increasingly need to do more with less, which is driving more virtualization and automation inside the data center. The IBM Ethernet Switch B48Y can simplify connectivity between devices and easily extend a virtual machine’s sphere of mobility by using IronStack technology to create a single logical chassis out of up to eight discrete switches. Supporting up to four 10 GbE ports, the B48Y provides up to twice the uplink bandwidth of typical 1 GbE switches.

Note: This product has been withdrawn from marketing and is no longer available for ordering from IBM.

The IBM Ethernet Switch B48Y is a high-performance, feature-rich, easy-to-manage 1 GbE solution for network device access. Purpose-built for the data center with a wire-speed, non-blocking architecture, high-availability features including optional redundant and hot-swappable power supplies and fans, and rack-friendly airflow, the B48Y enables organizations to scale easily in virtualized and non-virtualized data center environments.

The switch comes fully featured with Layer 2 and Layer 3 capabilities, giving organizations ultimate flexibility in deployment options. With the optional 4-port 10 GbE interface module, a row of up to eight switches can be unified into a single logical chassis with 384 ports using IronStack technology, greatly simplifying management and increasing virtual machine mobility.

The switch runs a feature-rich and mature IronWare operating system with an industry-standard command-line interface (CLI), minimizing re-training and operational costs. Supporting a full range of RFC and IEEE standards for interoperability, along with compatibility for vendor-specific protocols such as Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) and Per-VLAN Rapid Spanning Tree Plus (PVRST+), the B48Y integrates seamlessly into existing network infrastructures.


Figure 1. IBM Ethernet Switch B48Y with optional 4-port 10 GbE SFP+ interface module (front view)



Figure 2. IBM Ethernet Switch B48Y (back view)


Did you know

As server utilization increases due to virtualization on more powerful hardware such as the IBM innovative eX5 architecture, so does the average and burst bandwidth utilization on the switches in the network. To alleviate these performance bottlenecks, the B48Y is capable of supporting four 10 GbE uplinks, double the bandwidth of most standard 1 GbE switches, to enable near 1:1 subscription during periods of heavy traffic flows with extremely low port-to-port latencies. Even with its outstanding performance, the B48Y is highly power efficient, using up to 36% less power than competing switches.

To ease manageability, up to eight switches can be stacked together to create a single logical chassis of 384 ports. All switches in the same stack share a single configuration file, IP address, and interface addressing scheme. This solution can be a cost-effective alternative to a design using an end-of-row, modular chassis. The IBM B48Y is complemented by a full Ethernet and IP product portfolio, allowing an organization to standardize on a network infrastructure running on the proven IronWare operating system.


Part number information

Table 1 lists the orderable part numbers for the B48Y and associated options through System x.

Table 1. IBM part numbers and feature codes for ordering

• One IBM Ethernet Switch B48Y, which includes:
• Fourty-eight 10/100/1000 MbE RJ-45 ports
• One open interface module slot for an optional 4-port 10 GbE (SFP+) module
• One out-of-band 10/100/1000 MbE RJ-45 management port
• One DB9 male serial console port
• One hot-swappable quad-fan fan tray
• One (of two) 210 W AC hot-swappable power supplys
• One 1.5 m DB9 female-to-DB9 female straight-through serial console cable
• Rack mount brackets for mounting into an EIA-310D compliant rack
• IBM Ethernet Switch y-series Installation and User Guide
• Statement of limited warranty
• Brocade end user license agreement
• Safety and regulatory notices
• CD-ROM with manuals and environmental notices

Fixed port switches Pros: low acquisition costs Cons: switches need to be managed individually
Fi xed port, stackable switches Pros: flexible, pay as you go, cost-effective management Cons: performance compared with modular chassis
Modular switch chassis Pros: high performance, port density, availability Cons: initial acquisition cost, price per port

• Comprehensive standards support: Supporting a wide range of open IEEE and RFC standards, the B48Y is fully interoperable with existing network environments. In addition, the B48Y supports vendor-specific protocols such as Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP), native support for Per-VLAN Rapid Spanning Tree Plus (PVRST+), and static trunks to EtherChannel for further supportability.
• IronStack technology: IronStack enables multiple discrete switches to be unified together into a single logical chassis, enabling multi-device hardware redundancy, speeding up infrastructure rollouts, and simplifying management operations. Unifying the access layer can reduce the need for spanning tree protocol, which increases bandwidth utilization and helps flatten the network.
• Double the uplink bandwidth: Supports up to four 10 Gbps uplinks, double the uplink bandwidth of common 1 Gbps switches. With full-line rate traffic on all ports, 1:1 internal subscription, and up to 176 Gbps of internal forwarding performance, the B48Y ensures that your network devices have the bandwidth that they require.
• Built for the data center: The B48Y features back-to-front airflow, allowing installation into racks with a hot-cold aisle design without the need for complicated air baffles. All ports are found on the front side of the switch for easy serviceability.
• Fully featured L2/L3 switch: Dynamic Layer 3 routing, advanced Layer 2 features such as Q-in-Q, protected links, and advanced quality of service (QoS) are all included in the base, eliminating complicated licensing schemes.
• High availability: Hot-swappable and redundant power supplies and fan trays reduce downtime and allow you to meet your service level agreements by increasing switch availability.
• Best-in-class power efficiency: At only 112 W, the low power consumption reduces operational costs tied to power and cooling and allows data centers running out of power to deploy more assets.
• Industry-standard CLI: Minimize re-training and personnel costs while increasing operational efficiencies by utilizing a management interface that the network team is already familiar with.
• Mature operating system: The feature-rich and time-tested IronWare operating system running on the B48Y and all IBM b-type system networking devices provide a consistent experience across the network.
• Granular network visibility: Hardware-based sFlow v5 provides packet sampling for analysis, trending, and application of automated policies based on thresholds using industry applications such as Brocade Ironview Network Manager.
• Cost competitive: The B48Y includes all software capabilities and a 3-year warranty on the base product, simplifying ordering while being priced extremely competitively compared with other vendors.

• Form-factor
• One RU; 44.0 cm (17.3 in.) width x 4.4 cm (1.7 in.) height x 43.5 cm (17.2 in.) depth
• Rack-mount into 19” EIA-310D compliant rack, Telco rack, or table-top
• Ports (data)
• Forty-eight 10/100/1000 MbE RJ-45 ports with auto-MDI/MDIX detection and auto-negotiation
• One open interface module slot
• Interface module options
• 4-port 10 GbE SFP+ interface module (81Y1455)
• Ports (management, out-of-band)
• One 10/100/1000 MbE RJ-45 port
• One DB9 male serial console port
• Power supplies, fans, and airflow
• Two 210 W AC hot-swappable power supplies supported for 1+1 redundancy (base switch comes with 1)
• One hot-swappable fan tray with four 3+1 redundant fans
• Back-to-front airflow supports data center hot-cold aisle deployments
• Performance
• 176 Gbps line speed full-duplex throughput
• 132 Mpps forwarding capacity
• Jumbo frames
• Supported, up to 10,232-byte Ethernet frame sizes
• Media (transceivers)
• On 4-port 10 GbE SFP+ module (81Y1455)
• 10 GbE SFP+ -SR transceivers and Direct Attach copper TwinAx cables available
• VLANs
• Up to 4096 maximum VLANs
• 802.1Q tagging
• 802.1Q-in-Q tagging
• Dual-mode VLANs (tagged and untagged traffic across same port)
• Port-based, protocol-based (AppleTalk, IPv4, IPv6, and IPX), and subnet-based VLANs
• GARP VLAN Registration Protocol (GVRP) for distributed VLAN configuration
• VLAN groups
• Private VLANs
• Link aggregation
• Up to eight links per group, 32 link groups per switch
• Static trunks compatible with Cisco EtherChannel
• 802.3ad Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) for dynamic trunk groups
• Cross-device link aggregation for switches in the same stack
• Quality of service and rate shaping
• Eight queues per port with strict priority (SP), weighted round robin (WRR), and combined SP/WRR schedulers
• 802.1p class of service (CoS)
• IP DSCP/DiffServ (type of service) to priority mapping
• ACL, port, and static MAC address to priority mapping
• Layer 2 CoS and Layer 3 DSCP re-marking
• Fixed and adaptive inbound rate limiting
• Outbound rate shaping
• Symmetric flow control supports 802.1x transmission and receipt of 802.1x PAUSE frames
• Layer 2
• Up to 32,000 MAC addresses.
• Per-VLAN Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol Plus (PVST/PVST+/PVRST+) compatibility in default configuration supports smooth implementation into Cisco Layer 2 environments.
• 802.1d Spanning Tree Protocol (STP).
• 802.1w Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP).
• 802.1s Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) enables multiple STP instances and forwarding paths for more efficient traffic distribution.
• Virtual Switch Redundancy Protocol (VSRP) is an alternative to STP and includes sub-second convergence and Layer 2 redundancy based on the VRRPE protocol.
• Metro Ring Protocol (MRP) v1/v2 enables fast, sub-second convergence in ring topologies.
• IGMPv1/v2/v3, PIM-SM, and MLDv1/v2 Snooping reduces multicast flooding in a Layer 2 network.
• Root Guard prevents rogue devices from hijacking STP root.
• BPDU Guard prevents rogue devices from participating in STP.
• DHCP Assist helps DHCP servers respond correctly to devices in a different subnet than the DHCP server.
• Layer 3
• Up to 16,000 IPv4 routes
• Routing Information Protocol (RIP) v1/v2
• Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) v2
• Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) v1/v2/v3
• Protocol Independent Multicast Dense Mode (PIM-DM) v1/v2 and Sparse Mode (PIM-SM) v2
• Equal Cost Multi Path (ECMP) for load balancing across up to eight paths
• Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) and VRRP-E (Enhanced)
• Policy-based routing (PBR) enables ACLs to be applied to routing decisions
• Security
• 802.1x authentication, accounting, port security, and dynamic assignment for ACLs, MAC filtering, and VLANs
• Up to 1,534 inbound, rule-based (hardware-based) access control list (ACL) entries
• Standard ACLs based on source IP address
• Extended ACLs based on source and destination IP addresses or IP protocol information
• Authorization, authentication, and accounting (AAA) support on RADIUS, TACACS, and TACACS+
• Multi-device authentication validates and applies security policies based on MAC address information from a RADIUS server
• AES encryption for SSHv2 and SNMPv3
• Denial of service protection against Smurf (ICMP) and TCP SYN attacks
• IP Source Guard permits traffic only after a valid IP address is learned on a port
• DHCP Snooping prevents man-in-the-middle attacks against untrusted DHCP sources
• Dynamic ARP inspection prevents man-in-the-middle attacks against invalid ARP bindings
• Management
• Industry-standard CLI via Telnet and SSHv2
• Easy-to-use web-based GUI for device management over HTTP/HTTPS
• Fault management integration with IBM Systems Director v6.2
• Network-wide management of all IBM b-type system networking switches using Brocade IronView Network Manager (INM)
• Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) v1/v2/v3
• DHCP client-based auto-configuration for automatic retrieval of configuration files and firmware images
• sFlow v5 for hardware-based packet sampling
• Ties into industry tools such as Brocade INM and InMon products for trend analysis and automated policy application
• Remote Monitoring (RMON) protocol
• Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP), LLDP-MED (Media Endpoint Detection), Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP), and Foundry Discovery Protocol (FDP)
• Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP)
• Firmware image update via TFTP and SCP
• Monitoring
• Syslog support of up to six Syslog servers for centralized log collection and analysis.
• Port mirroring of inbound and outbound traffic.
• Digital Optical Monitoring monitors power levels and temperatures of optical transceivers and sends an alert if operating out of specification.
• Temperature monitoring sends alerts if the temperature exceeds a certain threshold and shuts down the device after an extended period of time.
• Port flap dampening increases network resiliency by limiting the number of port state transitions on an interface.
• Link Fault Signaling (LFS) detects and reports fault conditions on 10 GbE ports.
• Uni-Directional Link Detection (UDLD) monitors the link between two devices and brings the port down if the link goes down on either end.

System x rack and tower server adapter models

Brocade 10Gb CNA (42C1820)

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

QLogic 10Gb CNA (42C1800)

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Emulex Virtual Fabric Adapter (49Y4250)

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

NetXtreme II 10 GigE Express Fiber SR Adapter (42C1790)

N

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

• The adapter’s supported 10GBASE-SR SFP+ transceiver connected to the B48Y 10GBASE-SR SFP+ transceiver [69Y0389] over multi-mode fiber cable
• The Direct Attach SFP+ Active TwinAx copper cables listed in Table 4

Diagram reference	Part number/ machine type	Description	Quantity
	0563-022	IBM Ethernet Switch B48Y, with optional 4-port 10 GbE Interface Module (SFP+) (FC 6687).	2
	Varies	IBM System x server with 1 GbE NICs. Other vendor servers can be used.	Twenty 1 RU Four 2 RU
	Varies	NAS array.	Varies
	Varies	Existing network infrastructure that can include IBM Systems Networking devices and other standards-compliant Ethernet/IP switches and routers.	-
	0563-022	IBM Ethernet Switch B48Y, with optional 4-port 10 GbE Interface Module (SFP+) (FC 6687).	2
	Varies	iSCSI SAN array.	Varies

• Thirty-four rack units
• 1:1 subscription ratio within rack
• Up to 1.2:1 subscription ratio to rest of network
• Connectivity to NAS and/or iSCSI SAN for mid-range scalable storage

• In a stacked configuration, two of the four 10 GbE ports are used for stacking to provide a high-bandwidth backplane between the switches. Stacking simplifies manageability and allows servers to utilize Active-Active NIC teaming with standards-based link aggregation to each of the two switches in the rack. The remaining four 10 GbE ports in the dual-stacked switches connect to the rest of the network, providing 40 Gbps of bandwidth to the rest of the network. See Figure 7 for an example.
• In a non-stacked configuration, up to four 10 GbE uplinks per switch can be used to connect to the rest of the network, allowing organizations to deploy highly utilized networks while avoiding congestion during peak usage.

Figure 10. IBM Ethernet Switch B48Y device connections

Diagram reference	Part number/ machine type	Description	Quantity
	0563-022	IBM Ethernet Switch B48Y	2
	Varies	IBM x3850/x3960 X5 (except ARx model) Comes with 2-port 10 GbE (SFP+) Emulex Virtual Fabric Adapter. Connections to 10 GbE ports require optional 4-port 10 GbE Interface Module (81Y1455). Use a single Direct Attach Cable (TwinAx) to connect to B48Y, available in 1, 3, or 5 meters. (See Table 4.)	-
	Varies	NAS or iSCSI storage array.	Varies
	41Y8522	Cisco Catalyst 3012 Ethernet Switch Module. Connect to 1 GbE RJ-45 ports on controller using Category 5 or higher copper cabling.	2
	Varies	IBM System x server. Connect to on-board 1 GbE RJ-45 ports using Category 5 or higher copper cabling.	-
	Varies	Other servers with 1 GbE NIC. Connect to on-board 1 GbE RJ-45 ports using Category 5 or higher copper cabling.	-

Diagram reference	Part number/ machine type	Description	Quantity
	0563-022	IBM Ethernet Switch B48Y	1
	4003-M16	IBM Ethernet Switch B16M On B16M, use FC1711 (4-port 10 GbE XFP module) and FC2110 (10GBASE-SR XFP). B48Y requires 81Y1455 (optional 4-port 10 GbE Interface Module (SFP+)) with 69Y0389 (10GBASE-SR SFP+). Connect over multi-mode fiber.	1
	N/A	Cisco Catalyst 6509-E On 6509, use 8-port 10 GbE Fiber module with X2-10GB-SR (10GBASE-SR X2 module). B48Y requires 81Y1455 (optional 4-port 10 GbE Interface Module (SFP+)) with 69Y0389 (10GBASE-SR SFP+). Connect over multi-mode fiber. (Note that the X2 module has a SC connector, while the SFP+ has an LC connector.)	1

• 10GBASE-SR SFP+ transceiver [69Y0389]
• 840 to 860 nm wavelength using multi-mode fiber cable, LC duplex connector. Operating distance supported depends on multi-mode fiber cable used (Table 12).
• DB9 male serial console port – DB9 female-to-DB9 female straight-through serial console cable that comes with the switch

• IBM System x network options support site for model-type 0563 (code download and documentation)

http://www.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/Overview/Hardware/Systems/System_x/Network_Solutions/0563

• IBM Redbooks publication IBM b-type Data Center Networking: Design and Best Practices Introduction, SG24-7786

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247786.html?Open

• IBM Redbooks publication IBM b-type Data Center Networking: Product Introduction and Initial Setup, SG24-7785

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247785.html?Open

• IBM Ethernet Switch B48Y product page

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/x/hardware/networking/ethernetb48y/index.html

• IBM Ethernet Switch B24X product page

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/x/hardware/networking/ethernetb24x/index.html

• IBM Configuration and Options Guide

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/x/hardware/networking/ethernetb24x/index.html

• IBM Smarter Networks

http://www.smarternetworks.com

• IBM b-type Ethernet switches and routers

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/networking/hardware/ethernet/b-type/index.htmls we