Content

| 6.1 |  | Implementing Module Redundancy in a Multilayer Switched Network |
| 6.1.4 |  | Implementing redundant distributed forwarding cards in Catalyst switches |

The distributed forwarding card (DFC) for the Catalyst 6500 series delivers high-speed distributed services and forwarding for deployment in data center backbones and server farm aggregation. The DFC complements the centralized forwarding of the Catalyst 6500 Supervisor Engine 2 by distributing the centralized forwarding intelligence to each DFC-enabled line card module. This provides localized forwarding and service decisions on each line card and accelerates the forwarding performance of the Catalyst 6500 series to 100+ Mbps.

Scalable Performance for Service Providers and Enterprises
The DFC works with the Switch Fabric Module, Supervisor Engine 2 with Multilayer Switch Feature Card (MSFC) 2, and fabric-enabled cards to provide a framework for distributed Cisco Express Forwarding based forwarding architecture. Supervisor IOS is required since Catalyst OS does not support distributed forwarding. While classic line cards cannot directly participate in distributed forwarding, Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF) capabilities can still be used based on the centralized capabilities offered by Supervisor Engine 2.