Switching of Virtual Links
Each switch has filtering, policing, and forwarding functions that should be able to process at least 4096 VLs. Therefore, in a network with multiple switches (cascaded star topology), the total number of Virtual Links is nearly limitless. There is no specified limit to the number of Virtual Links that can be handled by each End System, although this will be determined by the BAG rates and max frame size specified for each VL versus the Ethernet data rate. However, the number sub-VLs that may be created in a single Virtual Link is limited to four. The switch must also be non-blocking at the data rates that are specified by the system integrator, and in practise this may mean that the switch shall have a switching capacity that is the sum of all of its physical ports.
Since AFDX utilizes the Ethernet protocol at the MAC layer, it is possible to use high performance COTS switches with Layer 2 routing as AFDX switches for testing purposes as a cost-cutting measure. However some features of a real AFDX switch may be missing such as traffic policing and redundancy functions.
Read more about this topic: Avionics Full-Duplex Switched Ethernet
Famous quotes containing the words switching of, virtual and/or links:
“Parenting can be established as a time-share job, but mothers are less good “switching off” their parent identity and turning to something else. Many women envy the father’s ability to set clear boundaries between home and work, between being an on-duty and an off-duty parent.... Women work very hard to maintain a closeness to their child. Father’s value intimacy with a child, but often do not know how to work to maintain it.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“Neither dead nor alive, the hostage is suspended by an incalculable outcome. It is not his destiny that awaits for him, nor his own death, but anonymous chance, which can only seem to him something absolutely arbitrary.... He is in a state of radical emergency, of virtual extermination.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)