Nortel Passport 8608, Passport 8648, Passport 8690SF, Passport 8648TX, Passport 8624FX Specifications

In combination with the Passport 8100
series Edge Switch modules and the
Passport 700 server switches, the Passport
8600 Routing Switch modules are ideal
for Enterprise backbones and server
farms. One software license per 8600
chassis is required.

Switch Management

The 8690SF module (see Figure 1) is
optimized for high-performance switching
of Layer 2 and Layer 3 traffic. The
on-board CPU performs independent
learning of unknown devices and topology
updates so that the switch fabric is
dedicated to switching critical application

Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching architecture
that delivers 128 Gbps of switching
capacity for high-performance application
support today, scaling to 256 Gbps in the
future. Wire-speed switching and routing
between any two ports on the switch is
performed with latency less than 10µs,
making the Passport 8600 the ideal
platform for deploying eBusiness and
Internet Telephony applications in an
Open IP environment. All 8600 Routing
Switch modules feature Express
Classification (XC), embedded hardware­based filtering for security and traffic
classification, for wire-speed Layer 2,
Layer 3 and Layer 4 policy services.

Product Brief

Passport 8000

8600 Series Routing Switch Modules

Passport 8600 Series
Features and Benefits

• High Availability

• Operational Simplicity

• Low Cost of Ownership

• Open IP Environment

The Passport* 8600 Routing Switch
modules deliver wire-speed switching
and routing over copper and fiber media.
The Passport 8600 Routing Switch
modules support a high-performance

Figure 1: Passport 8600 series Switch Fabric/CPU Module.

Passport 8600 Routing Switch Modules Product Brief2

Figure 2: Passport 8600 series Fast Ethernet Routing Switch Modules.

traffic. Two 8690SF modules can be
installed for optimum performance and
reliability. Both switch fabrics are used for
traffic forwarding, doubling performance,
and one CPU acts as the master software
control engine. In the event of a SF/CPU
failure, traffic is switched via the remaining
SF/CPU module and control is passed to
the secondary CPU automatically, in less
than one second.

The SF/CPU module provides a console
port (DTE/DCE switch selectable) and
modem port using DB-9 pin connectors;
a PCMCIA slot for ATA type cards and a
10/100 Ethernet port for management.

The SF/CPU module has LEDs to indicate
temperature, power supply and fan tray
status, CPU/SF master/secondary status,
CPU and Switch Fabric utilization, and
management port link and speed.

In addition to one or two SF/CPU
modules, up to eight 8600 series Routing
Switch modules can be installed in the
Passport 8000 10-slot chassis and up to
four modules in the 6-slot chassis.

Fast Ethernet

The two Fast Ethernet Routing Switch
modules for the Passport 8600 are the
8648TX module and the 8624FX module
(see Figure 2). These provide high
availability, high port density and
operational simplicity for LAN server
farms and high-end policy-enabled
wiring closets.

The 8648TX module provides 48
autosensing 10/100 Mbps ports for
server and desktop connectivity using
RJ-45 connectors. It is optimized for
high-density server farms and high-end
wiring closets, delivering cost-effective
10/100 switching and routing.

The 8624FX module provides 24
100 Mbps ports for riser and inter-switch
connections using mini MT-RJ connectors.
It is optimized for Fast Ethernet risers
and long distance switch inter-connection
over multi-mode fiber, delivering up to

1.6 Gbps of bandwidth in a single trunk
using distributed Multi-Link Trunking.
Both modules support Express
Classification (XC) for wire-speed Layer 2,
Layer 3 and Layer 4 policy services.

Each module has LEDs to indicate
port status and activity, and additional
LEDs to indicate module power and
diagnostic status. The 8648TX module
has LEDs to indicate port speed.

Gigabit Ethernet

The Passport 8600 series Gigabit Ethernet
Routing Switch modules are IEEE 802.3z
standards-compliant and deliver wire­speed switching and routing over both
multi-mode and single-mode fiber media.

The 8608SX module provides eight
1000 Mbps ports for server and inter-switch
connectivity using SC connectors. It is
optimized for high-density server farms
and building risers, delivering cost-effective
wire-speed Gigabit switching and routing
using multi-mode fiber.

Passport 8600 Routing Switch Modules Product Brief 3

Table 1: Maximum port densities for the Passport 8010 and 8006 chassis.

No. of Interfaces

Module and Interface Type per module Maximum No. of Interfaces per Chassis

Passport 8006 6-slot chassis Passport 8010 10-slot chassis

8648TX Routing Switch module 48 192 384
10/100 BASE-TX (RJ45)

8624FX Routing Switch module 24 96 192
100 BASE-FX (Mini MT-RJ)

8608SX Routing Switch module 832 64
1000 BASE-SX (SC)

8608GBIC Routing Switch module 832 64
1000 BASE-SX/LX/XD GBICs (SC)

Each module has LEDs to indicate
port status and activity and additional
LEDs to indicate power and
diagnostic status.

Table 1 shows the connectivity types
and maximum port density that can
be supported in both the 6-slot and
10-slot chassis.

Future support for 16-port Gigabit
Ethernet modules will enable density to
scale to 128 ports in the 10-slot chassis
and 64 ports in the 6-slot chassis.

Future releases will provide for Gigabit
Ethernet over copper media, using IEEE

802.3ab compliant 1000BASE-T modules.

The 8-port 8608GBIC Routing Switch
module (see Figure 3) uses plug-in
Gigabit Interface Converters (GBICs)
with SC connectors for customers wishing
to “mix and match” interface types on
a single module. They are available in
shortwave (SX), longwave (LX) and
extended distance (XD and ZX).
The 8608GBIC module is optimized
for LAN backbones and server farms,
enabling long-distance switch inter­connection over multi-mode or single­mode fiber.

Both modules deliver up to 16 Gbps
of bandwidth in a single trunk using
distributed Multi-Link Trunking and
also support Express Classification (XC)
for wire-speed Layer 2, Layer 3 and Layer 4
policy services.

Figure 3: Passport 8600 series Gigabit Ethernet

Routing Switch Modules (8608SX).

Features and Benefits

High Availability

• Redundant Switch Fabrics, with active
load-balancing and automatic failover
to eliminate any single point of failure.

• Hot-swap for all modules and chassis
components.

• Enhanced Spanning Tree FastStart
reduces convergence time on
Layer 2 links.

• Distributed Multi-Link Trunking
(MLT) delivers scalable, fail-safe
riser, backbone and server connectivity
with trunks distributed across multiple
modules for improved resilience.

• Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol
(VRRP) provides load-balancing
and automatic recovery from default
gateway failure.

• Equal Cost Multi-Path (ECMP)
routing for OSPF backbones provides
load-balancing and fast recovery
from router or trunk failures in future
software release.

Operational Simplicity

• Switch capacity of 128 Gbps,
easily upgradeable to 256 Gbps
in the future.

• Hardware support for up to 32,000
forwarding and filtering entries
per switch.

• IEEE 802.3u 10/100 auto-negotiation
for automatic speed and duplex setting.

• Non-blocking, wire-speed switching
and routing for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet
and Gigabit Ethernet.

• Express Classification (XC)
— wire-speed filtering for security
and policy services, based on Layer 2,
3 or 4 information.

• Multi-Link Trunking (MLT) increases
riser, backbone and server scalability
by aggregating 2 to 8 ports to form
a single high-performance link of up
to 16 Gbps capacity.

• Internet Group Management Protocol
(IGMP) snooping and pruning, plus
DVMRP multicast routing provides
efficient control of Multicast traffic,
with hardware scaling to 16,000
multicast groups

• Port, Protocol, MAC address and
IP Subnet-based VLANs provides
broadcast containment and separation
of network traffic.

• 802.1Q VLAN tagging enables
multiple VLANs be carried over
a single riser trunk.

• Brouter support enables Layer 2
switching of legacy protocols like
AppleTalk and DECnet while routing
IP and IPX on the same port.

Passport 8600 Routing Switch Modules Product Brief4

• 802.1p prioritization enables Class
of Service (CoS) support for critical
business applications.

• IP DiffServ support, with 8 hardware
queues per port and Weighted Round
Robin (WRR) queuing provides
support for policy-based networking.

• Four groups of Remote Network
Monitoring (RMON) per port.

• Conversation steering for local
monitoring and troubleshooting
or for use with Optivity* web-enabled
StackProbes for full RMON2
management.

• Configuration using Command
Line Interface (CLI) and Device
Manager/VLAN Manager, common
to all Passport products.

Low Cost of Ownership

• Future-proof chassis with built-in
support for many different technologies.

• Web-based Optivity device and
network management

• Support for Optivity end-to-end
policy management

• Optimized solution for carrying
Internet Telephony