Networking

OSA-Express4S – connectivity for LANs

Accessing intranets and the internet with OSA-Express4S
OSA-Express4S is designed for high-speed communication in the enterprise backbone or between campuses, to connect server farms, or to consolidate file servers onto zEnterprise 196 and zEnteprise 114 servers. The workload can be Internet Protocol-based (IP) or non-IP based. OSA-Express4S is an integrated hardware feature optimized for mainframe local area network (LAN) connectivity.

OSA-Express3 1000BASE-T Ethernet

OSA-Express3 1000BASE-Ethernet continues to be offered for local area networks using copper cabling. For more information refer to the IBM System z Connectivity Handbook, SG24-5444, which can be found at the following website: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/

Direct Memory Access (DMA)
The OSA-Express4S and OSA-Express3 features along with the operating systems share a common storage area for memory-to-memory communication, reducing system overhead and improving performance. There are no read or write channel programs for data exchange. For write processing, no I/O interrupts have to be handled. For read processing, the number of I/O interrupts is minimized.

Hardware data router
With OSA-Express4S and OSA-Express3, much of what was previously done in licensed internal code (packet construction, inspection, and routing) is now performed in hardware. This allows packets to flow directly from host memory to the LAN without firmware intervention. With the hardware data router, the "store and forward" technique is no longer used, which enables true direct memory access, a direct host memory-to-LAN flow, returning CPU cycles for application use.

Port granularity for increased flexibility: The OSA-Express4S features have half the number of ports per feature compared to OSA-Express3. This design facilitates purchasing the right number of ports to help satisfy your application requirements and to better optimize for redundancy.

OSA-Express4S 10 GbE with one port per feature: The OSA-Express4S 10 GbE features have one CHPID per feature and one port associated with the CHPID. A feature can be configured to support CHPID type OSD or OSX.

• CHPID type OSD continues to support the Queued Direct Input/Output (QDIO) architecture, TCP/IP traffic when Layer 3 (uses IP address), protocol-independent when Layer 2 (uses MAC address).
• CHPID type OSX continues to support connectivity and access control to intraensemble data network (IEDN) from z196 or z114 to zBX (OSA-Express 10 GbE features only)

OSA-Express4S 10 Gigabit Ethernet Long Reach (LR) is available for single mode fiber environments. OSA-Express4S 10 Gigabit Ethernet Short Reach (SR) is available for multimode fiber environments

OSA-Express4S GbE with two ports per feature: The OSA-Express4S GbE features have one CHPID per feature (CHPID type OSD) and two ports associated with the CHPID.

Note: CHPID type OSN (OSA-Express for NCP) is not being offered for the OSA-Express4S GbE features.

OSA-Express4S GbE long wavelength (LX) is available for single mode fiber environments. OSA-Express4S GbE short wavelength (SX) is available for multimode fiber environments.

The OSA-Express4S 10 Gigabit Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet features are exclusive to z196 and z114. They are for use exclusively in the PCIe I/O drawer and are supported by z/OS, z/VM, z/VSE, z/TPF, and Linux on System z.

OSA-Express4S Gigabit Ethernet LX (long wavelength) (#0404)

• Data rate: 1000 Mbps (1 Gbps)
• Operating mode: Full duplex
• Defined as: CHPID type OSD
• Frame size: DIX V2: 1492 bytes; for jumbo frame 8992 bytes
• Connector type: LC Duplex
• Port count: Two LX ports per feature
• Cable type: Single mode fiber optic cabling (9 micron)
• Unrepeated distance: 5 km (3.1 miles)
• Unrepeated distance if using MCP cables: 550 meters (1804 feet)

OSA-Express4S Gigabit Ethernet SX (short wavelength) (#0405)

• Data rate: 1000 Mbps (1 Gbps)
• Operating mode: Full duplex
• Defined as: CHPID type
• Frame size: DIX V2: 1492 bytes; for jumbo frame 8992 bytes
• Connector type: LC Duplex
• Port count: Two SX ports per feature
• Cable type: Multimode fiber optic cabling (50 or 62.5 micron)
• Unrepeated distance:
  • With 50 micron fiber at 500 MHz-km: 550 meters (1804 feet)
  • With 62.5 micron fiber at 200 MHz-km: 275 meters (902 feet)
  • With 62.5 micron fiber at 160 MHz-km: 220 meters (722 feet)

OSA-Express3 1000BASE-T Ethernet (#3367) and
OSA-Express3-2P 1000BASE-T Ethernet (#3369 on z114)

• Data rate: 10, 100, or 1000 Mbps
• Operating modes: Autonegotiate, half duplex, full duplex
• Defined as: CHPID types OSC, OSD, OSE, OSM, OSN
• Frame size: DIX V2: 1492 bytes; for jumbo frame 8992 bytes
• Connector type: RJ-45
• Port count: Four 1000BASE-T ports/two PCIe adapters per feature (#3367)
• Port count: Two 1000BASE-T ports/one PCIe adapter per feature (#3369); exclusive to z10 BC
• Cable type: EIA/TIA Category 5 Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) cable with a maximum length of 100 meters (328 feet)

OSA-Express4S 10 Gigabit Ethernet LR (long reach) (#0406)

• Data rate: 10 Gigabits per second (10 Gbps)
• Operating mode: Full duplex
• Defined as: CHPID type OSD or OSX
• Frame size: DIX V2: 1492 bytes; for jumbo frame 8992 bytes
• Connector type: LC Duplex
• Port count: One LR port per feature
• Cable type: Single mode fiber optic cabling (9 micron)
• Unrepeated distance: 10 km (6.2 miles)

OSA-Express4S 10 Gigabit Ethernet SR (#0407)

• Data rate: 10 Gigabits per second (10 Gbps)
• Operating mode: Full duplex
• Defined as: CHPID type OSD or OSX
• Frame size: DIX V2: 1492 bytes; for jumbo frame 8992 bytes
• Connector type: LC Duplex
• Port count: One Short Reach (SR) port per feature
• Cable type: Multimode fiber optic cabling (50 or 62.5 micron)
• Unrepeated distance:
  • With 50 micron fiber at 2000 MHz-km: 300 meters (984 feet)
  • With 50 micron fiber at 500 MHz-km: 82 meters (269 feet)
  • With 62.5 micron fiber at 200 MHz-km: 33 meters (108 feet)