Cisco's latest line of smart switches are aimed at offering intelligence at the network edge, where one network environment interfaces with another. The need for intelligence at the edge of the network is being driven largely by four key developments:

• Growth in desktop computing ability
• Proliferation of throughput-intensive applications
• Presence of highly sensitive information on the LAN
• Larger variety of devices, e.g. Voice over IP phones and wireless LAN bridges

Cisco switches implement industry-leading Quality of Service to help ensure that traffic is classified and prioritized, and that bottlenecks are avoided. Set up of Quality of Service is dramatically simplified via automatic QoS, a process that detects Cisco IP phones and sets up the switch for the appropriate classification and egress buffering. This optimizes process prioritization and system accessibility without requiring your IT department to implement a complicated configuration plan.

With Catalyst switches for small and medium-size businesses, Cisco enables businesses to realize the full advantages of incorporating smart services into their infratstructure. Catalyst Series switches make it possible to install capabilities that make the network infrastructure resilient to handle real time needs, expandable to support growth, safe so as to protect sensitive data, and configurable for differentiating and prioritizing processes to improve network efficiency.

Cisco 2950 Series Switches
Cisco Catalyst 2950-24 and 2950-12 fixed-configuration, managed Ethernet switches provide fundamental workgroup connectivity for small to medium-size organizations. These wire-rate desktop switches offer IOS Software functions for basic mixed-media traffic services at the network edge.

Cisco 2950G-12, 2950G-24, 2950G-48, and 2950G-24-DC Series switches are stackable devices that offer wire-speed connections to the desktop and Gigabit uplink connectivity by means of a variety of available Gigabit Interface Converter products. These devices, as well as the Catalyst 2950T-24 and 2950C-24 products, offer smart features such as resiliency, protection, and QoS to the edge of the network by means of the simple CMS Software web utility. The devices also come with Cisco Enhanced Image Software incorporated to support smart services.

The Cisco Catalyst 2950C-24 switch offers 24 10/100 ports as well as 2 fixed 100BASE ports. The Catalyst 2950T-24 switch offers an easy upgrade path to Gigabit Ethernet by utilizing in-place twisted-pair wiring infrastructure with 24 auto-sensing 10/100 ports plus two dedicated 10/100/1000 uplinks. Embedded in the Cisco Catalyst 2950 is the Cisco Cluster Management Suite (CMS) Software web interface, which enables users to configure and troubleshoot multiple Cisco Catalyst desktop devices using a standard web browser.

Cisco Catalyst 3560 Family Switches
Cisco’s Catalyst 3560 Series is a selection of non-modular switches that includes IEEE 802.3af and Cisco Power over Ethernet (PoE) functionality in 10/100 Ethernet and 10/100/1000 implementations. The Catalyst 3560 is an ideal Layer 2 switch for midsize business network connectivity or local-office environments, offering both Gigabit Ethernet and PoE options for optimal efficiency and investment protection while streamlining the deployment of the latest technology including Voice over IP, WiFi, video monitoring, and remote video kiosks. IT managers can activate comprehensive smart features including high-end QoS, rate limiting, ACLs, multicast administration, and fast IP routing with the ease of conventional LAN switching.

The Catalyst 3560 Series is equipped with a robust array of features that permit network scalability and higher resilience via IP routing plus a full suite of STP enhancements aimed to increase availability in an access Layer LAN. Enhancements to the conventional STP Protocol, such as Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Plus (PVST+), and Port Fast, as well as innovations such as Flex Links Layer 2 interfaces, optimize network efficiency. Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Plus (PVST+) supports Data Link Layer traffic balancing on backup links to efficiently use the extra bandwidth associated with a redundant design.

Efficient routing protocols such as OPSF, Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), Border Gateway Protocol, and static routing increase network scale; Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) optimizes network resources; and Virtual Route Forwarding Lite (VRFLite) protects traffic. data.

Catalyst 3750 Family Switches
For mid-size businesses and enterprise branch sites, Cisco's Catalyst 3750 Series simplifies deployment of converged technologies and adapts to changing business needs by offering setup versatility, ability to manage converged network patterns, and automatic set up of intelligent system services. In addition, the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series is engineered for high-volume Gigabit Ethernet environments and incorporates a wide selection of switches that comply with access, aggregation, or small-system backbone-connectivity demands.

Cisco's Catalyst 3750 switch is available with the IP Base or the IP Services image. The IP Base image functions include advanced QoS, rate-limiting, access control lists (ACLs) access control lists, and simple static and Routing Information Protocol routing support. The IP Services image provides a richer selection of enterprise network functions, such as sophisticated hardware-based IP unicast/multicast routing.

StackWise technology is an architecture designed for Gigabit Ethernet. StackWise is designed to respond to additions, deletions, and redeployments while providing constant operation. StackWise technology combines as many as nine individual switches into one logical device, utilizing custom stack-interconnect cables and software. Any of the switches can be any combination of Cisco's Catalyst 3750 Series and the Cisco Catalyst 3750-E Series switches. The stack operates as a single switching appliance that is directed by a control switch, chosen from one of the member switches. The master switch intelligently builds and updates all the switching and user-selected routing tables. A running stack can accommodate new switches or remove old members without service discontinuity.

Catalyst 4500 Series Switches
Cisco's Catalyst 4500 Series switches are designed for corporate LAN access, branch offices, Network Layer distribution points, small and medium-sized businesses, and metropolitan Ethernet deployments. The Catalyst 4500 family comprises a selection of enclosures containing from 3 to ten expansion slots and a set of supervisor engines delivering up to 136 Gbps of layer 2 through layer 4 switching. Cisco's Catalyst 4500 family switches support a rich variety of interface modules, including dense 10/100 Ethernet, 10/100/1000 Ethernet (either one with 802.3af availability), 100BASE-FX, 100BASE-LX10, 100BASE-BX-D, plus Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

The Cisco's Catalyst 4500 family offers a value-oriented selection of chassis: Cisco Catalyst 4510R (10 slots) with backup supervisor option), Cisco Catalyst 4507R (7 expansion slots) with backup supervisor option), Catalyst 4506 (6 expansion slots) and Cisco Catalyst 4503 (3 slots).

Catalyst 4948 Switches
The Catalyst 4948 Series switch is a wire-rate, low-latency, layer 2 through layer 4, single rack unit fixed-configuration switch for rack-optimized server switching. Based on the proven Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series switch hardware and software architecture, the Catalyst 4948 Series switch provides exceptional throughput and dependability for multilayer aggregation of high performance servers and workstations. Speed and expandability of smart system services is enabled through dedicated resources called ternary content addressable memory (TCAM). Ample TCAM resources (64,000 entries) support high function density, which provides wire-rate routing and switching performance with simultaneous provisioning of features such as Quality of Service and protection. This helps ensure scalability for today's network requirements with plenty of capacity for future growth.

The Catalyst 4948 switch provides 48 ports of wire-speed 10/100/1000 with four alternative ports that can support optional 1000BASE-X SFP optics. Industry-leading reliability and maintainability are provided with available AC or DC redundant hot-swappable A-to-B failover power units and hot-swappable fans.

The Cisco Catalyst 4948 switch can separate discrete Layer 2 community traffic at the same time, while conserving IP address capacity. The Cisco Catalyst 4948 Series switch can defend against man-in-the-middle and IP spoofing assaults to the rest of network with no modification of the server setup.Such attacks can be recorded by the Cisco Catalyst 4948 switch for auditing.

Catalyst 6500 Switches
The Catalyst 6500 Series switch is a high-throughput modular switch and router designed for convergence of data center, campus, and WAN in one device. Enterprise WAN, Internet connectivity, data center connectivity features including Multiprotocol Label Switching, high availability, quality of service, and security together with Cisco IOS Software scalability offer investment protection in the LAN and expand that value proposition to the Wide Area Network.

Catalyst 6500 Series switches offer a wide array of interface options spanning from DS0 to OC192/STM64, 10Mbps to 10-GE modules. Catalyst 6500 Series switches act as the core of enterprise Wide Area Network infrastructure by providing leading IP routing, hardware-enabled IPv4 and 6, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), and high-performance incorporated in a single platform. The Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switch is the premier Cisco Layer 3 switch for the enterprise WAN, connectivity, aggregation, and core edge of the corporate infrastructure with benefits in scalability and versatility that include 720 Gbps switch fabric performance with Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 720, the ability to expand as high as 400 Mpps switching/routing performance with distributed forwarding, 32 Gbps bus-based architecture for low-speed Wide Area Network aggregation, a high-performance processor for Layer 3 interface convergence and consistency, as well as scalable IP routing and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) functions enhanced in hardware with no performance loss.

How Progent's Experts Can Assist You with Catalyst Switches
Progent's CCIE qualified support professionals can show you how to choose and integrate Cisco switches in a manner that make sense for your existing IT needs and your strategy for future growth. Progent's CCIE offer enterprise-class technical support for the most challenging connectivity problems, and Progent's remote support professionals can track your network operations and uncover early-stage trouble spots and repair them so they don't seriously disturb productivity. Progent's CISSP qualified security consultants can assist you to create a comprehensive security policy and implement switches so as to help support your protection strategy.

To see more details about Progent's professional help for Cisco products, choose a subject: