The 8-port Gigabit Ethernet Adapter card has eight SFP ports for fiber or copper SFPs. The card supports dual rate (100 Mb/s and 1000 Mb/s) and Gigabit (1000 Mb/s) fiber connections and 10/100/1000Base-T copper connections. The card also supports synchronous Ethernet timing.
There are three versions of the 8-port Gigabit Ethernet Adapter card. Version 1 and version 2 are identical except that version 2 provides larger table space for FIBs, ACLs, and so on. Version 2 also supports the full IPv6 subnet range for IPv6 static routes and interface IP addresses. The static route range is from /1 to /128, and the default route is ::/0. Supported interface IP address prefixes are from /4 to /127, and /128 on system or loopback interfaces. Version 3 is identical to version 2 except that it is equipped with a hardware-based encryption engine to support features such as IPSec.
Higher limits and full subnet ranges are supported only when all the adapter cards in a particular node are equipped with hardware for larger table support.
Gigabit Ethernet optical ports offer significant advantages over fast Ethernet ports, even where lower-speed services are currently offered. With Gigabit Ethernet, service providers have the opportunity to standardize access infrastructure, ensure that capacity is available to accommodate growing bandwidth requirements, and minimize the operational costs associated with future service upgrades to hardware and software.