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Luminous E200: Enlightened Transport for Ethernet: Page 2 of 5

Let's See Some Traffic

To pass traffic over a packet ring, you must configure paths through the devices. The process is similar to creating a PVC through a carrier's ATM network, but not as easy. Yet LMS is still an early product, so I can overlook many of its idiosyncrasies.

Paths are created by connecting two ports, with each port on a separate Luminous switch. The two ports must be on the same ring, however. If your network has multiple rings, you're in for a workout: You'll need to create a path through each ring. If you have two endpoints on either side of a three-ring network, you'll need one path through each of the three rings. Luminous says the process will be simplified in an upcoming LMS release that will let the system create the entire path across multiple rings "automagically."

Ethernet traffic is divided into three QoS (Quality of Service) categories: best effort, express forwarding or assured forwarding. Best effort is self-explanatory: If it gets there, it gets there. Express gets a higher preference in the queue than assured. Both express and assured forwarding are guaranteed to get to reach their destinations, but express is designed to give time-sensitive data--like voice over IP or packetized video--higher priority.

Rate limiting can also be applied to keep the traffic within the bandwidth defined for the circuit. The three options are off, drop and mark down.