Hi Tom,

Thank you for the clarification.

In telecom there are also "shelves" mounted on racks. A shelf is a metal
frame with PSU and slots that can contain other cards. It is usually 1U-9U
in height. So it looks to me that a shelf is a type of chassis.

Now, there are usually subtended shelves that sit next to a main shelf and
connected by external cables. A subtended shelf (or subshelf) is also a
metal frame with PSU and slots, but it does not have its own control units
and instead is managed directly by the main shelf. If a subshelf is also
considered as a type of chassis, then it means that a chassis (shelf) could
contain another chassis (subshelf) as its child, and a subshelf has a shelf
as its parent.

Alternatively, it could be modeled by using a "stack" to group these
chassises together, but then to capture the parent-child relationship
between a shelf and a subshelf, it needs to create a stack that contains
both the main shelf and another stack which contains the subshelf. It
sounds a little redundant to me.

Thoughts are much appreciated.

Thanks,
Aihua


On Wed, Oct 20, 2021 at 8:51 AM <[email protected]> wrote:

> The confusion appears to stem from the exclusion of "chassis" in the first
> part of this sentence:
>
> "Any class of physical component, except a stack, may be contained within
> a chassis; a chassis may only be contained within a stack."
>
> It takes a rather pedantic read of the text to suggest that "any class of
> physical component" may also include a chassis, but perhaps it is worth
> updating the text to specifically state "Any class of physical component,
> except a stack or a chassis, may be contained within a chassis".
>
> Nesting a chassis within a chassis I don't see being useful to permit in
> practice/practically useful.
>
> Nested stacking sounds plausible. 'A stack of stacks' reminds me of a few
> designs I've seen in the past (4-way Cisco VSS, perhaps?)
>
> Regards,
>
> Tom
>
> My sincere apologies for Outlook.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: netmod <[email protected]> On Behalf Of tom petch
> Sent: 20 October 2021 12:10
> To: Aihua Guo <[email protected]>; [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [netmod] Clarification on the description for chassis and
> stack in RFC 8348
>
> From: netmod <[email protected]> on behalf of Aihua Guo <
> [email protected]>
> Sent: 13 October 2021 20:17
>
> Hi All,
>
> RFC 8348 defines chassis and stack as two identities for networking
> equipment. The description for chassis says that "Any class of physical
> component, except a stack, may be contained within a chassis; a chassis may
> only be contained within a stack." First statement of this sentence seems
> to suggest that a chassis (which is a component) can also be contained
> within a chassis, while the next statement, "a chassis may only be
> contained within a stack." seems to suggest that a chassis can be only
> contained within a stack and not within another chassis, which seems to
> contradict with the previous statement. So, which statement is correct?
>
> <tp>
> I do not know what the authors had in mind but to me a chassis is clearly
> a chassis and a stack a stack:-)
>
> A chassis is a frame, usually metal, often with PSU and perhaps
> managements functions into which blades can be slotted.  Without at least
> one blade it is usually not good for much except testing the management
> module although that may well be a blade and not integral with the
> chassis.  A multi-protocol switch would be a likely example.  I have not
> seen a chassis within a chassis.
>
> By contrast, a stack is made up of stackable elements, each of which is
> complete in itself and could be used by itself as a one element stack but
> which also have in/out sockets which enable multiple elements to be
> integrated into a single functional element.  A LAN hub where each element
> supports 16 ports and eight can be stacked to form a 128 port hub would be
> an example.  If the elements are all connected together, I see a stack.  If
> they are physically co-located but function as several separate entities
> then I see several stacks but not  a stack within a stack.
>
> HTH
>
> Tom Petch
>
>
> Another point to clarify is that in the description for stack, "...a stack
> may be contained within another stack.  Only chassis components should be
> contained within a stack." Is it correct to understand that a stack can
> contain either another stack or a chassis, or both, but nothing else?
>
> I would appreciate the clarification.
>
> Thanks,
> Aihua
>
>
>
>
>
>
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