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Is it possible configure 2 brocade ISX 6430 switches connected together to directly map a port on switch 1 to another port on switch 2 so that whatever is plugged into the port is treated the same as if it were connected with a straight through cable? If so, what is the terminology for doing something like this? Or is there a better way to go about creating something like this?

notanetworkadmin
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    No, this is not possible at the phy layer. What problem are you trying to solve here? – EEAA Mar 03 '15 at 05:22
  • Recently moved a phone system that had it's own patch panel for fax devices; the machines connected directly to the phone system - not the network. The fax devices had lines running to the data room with the phone system so the fax machines were connected directly to the phone system's fax patch panel. Now the phone system is moved to another location so new physical connections aren't possible. The locations are connected via the mentioned switches. – notanetworkadmin Mar 03 '15 at 05:33
  • I hate to even suggest this because it seems like such a hack, but if you have a spare cable feed running between the two switch rooms you could split each end into 4 pairs, wire each of those pairs into RJ11 connectors and connect them to the faxes and the phone systems fax panel with RJ11 couplers. If you have more than 4 fax machines then you'll need more than one cable feed between rooms. You would need one cable feed for every 4 fax machines. – joeqwerty Mar 03 '15 at 05:57
  • The switches are connected via fiber. – notanetworkadmin Mar 03 '15 at 05:59
  • Well then scratch that idea. Having cables pulled and a patch panel installed in each switch room is probably what you're going to have to do. – joeqwerty Mar 03 '15 at 05:59

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No, this is most definitely not possible. You are trying to route relatively high voltage, analog POTS signals over a digital switching media. It won't work.

Just because the connectors are similar doesn't mean you can jimmy things together.

You'll need to get someone in to pull some cable for you. There's a slight chance you could wire these two locations together via VoIP ATA adapters, but that will be a relatively complex project for you, and may not work at all in the end depending on your specific situation.

EEAA
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  • Aside from fax devices is there anything possible the router can do at layer 3 to do something like this if computers were connected instead? – notanetworkadmin Mar 03 '15 at 06:03
  • I'm not understanding your question. If computers were connected why would you need a router to do anything? The computers would connect to the switch ports. No routing would be required (unless you have computers connected to ports in different VLAN's that need to communicate). – joeqwerty Mar 03 '15 at 06:05
  • I just meant that assuming it wasn't a device transmitting high voltage, regular network traffic. Just think it would be interesting to simulate a straight through connection with the router handling some sort of static mapping of the ports so that whatever is connected doesn't need to worry about anything network wise. – notanetworkadmin Mar 03 '15 at 06:12