Physical Ports within ArenaCore are defined according to three key attributes:
- Connector Type
- Media Type
- Layer Rate
At a high level each physical port is described as fulfilling a specific ArenaCore Resource Role. Multiple Connector Types, multiple Media Types and multiple Layer Rates may be defined against any such Resource Role (that is being used to define Physical Port capabilities). When ArenaCore is checking whether any given source port is compatible with a specific target port, a match must occur across each of the Connector Type, Media Type and Layer Rate attribute groups.
On the surface, the use of Resource Roles to describe Physical Port compatibility will sound similar to the way in which Resource Roles are used to describe compatibility for Slot definitions. The difference is that Connector Types, Media Types and Layer Rates are not defined against Resource Roles used to describe Slot definitions (Role Keys are used in this case).