Competitive SAN Local Switching Solution: Limiting Scalability, Not Improving It

Overview

Local switching is switching in which traffic does not traverse the backplane of a switch but rather stays on a line card. This concept is positioned as a method for increasing the available bandwidth of a line card or reducing traffic on the backplane of a device. While the concept of local switching is sound and local switching has been successfully deployed on many types of devices, not all local switching implementations are equally effective. Although local switching is a valid method for potentially increasing performance, the usability of such of feature is ultimately determined by a vendor's implementation.