POD license

Brocade SAN switches have always used a Ports-on-Demand (POD) licensing model, where ports can be activated by applying a POD license. This model is also used in their IP product line, most prominently in the Brocade ICX and VDX series switches. The concept is simple: all ports are physically present, but not all of them are active, or are not active at 10GbE.