Cisco's latest line of smart switches focus on offering intelligence at the edge of the network, where one network environment communicates with another. The demand for intelligence at the network edge is fueled largely by four key trends:

• Growth in PC computing ability
• Introduction of throughput-intensive programs
• Presence of highly sensitive information on the LAN
• Greater variety of devices, such as VoIP phones and wireless LAN access points

Cisco switches implement industry-leading Quality of Service to help ensure that traffic is classified and prioritized, and that bottlenecks are eliminated. Configuration of QoS is dramatically streamlined via automatic Quality of Service, a feature that senses Cisco IP phones and sets up the switch for the right classification and egress queuing. This enhances traffic hierarchies and system accessibility without forcing your IT department to implement a complicated configuration strategy.

With Cisco Catalyst switches for small and medium-sized organizations, Cisco enables organizations to realize all the benefits of adding smart services into their networks. Catalyst switches make it possible to deploy capabilities that make the connectivity environment highly available to accommodate real time needs, expandable to facilitate future growth, safe enough to protect sensitive data, and configurable for classifying and controlling processes to optimize network operations.

Cisco 2950 Series Switches
Catalyst 2950-24 and 2950-12 non-modular, managed 10/100 switches provide basic workgroup connectivity for small to midsize organizations. These wire-speed desktop switches offer Cisco IOS Software features for simple data, video, and voice support at the edge of the network.

Cisco 2950G-12, 2950G-24, and 2950G-48 Series switches are stackable devices that offer wire-rate connections to the desktop and Gigabit uplink speed by means of a variety of available Gigabit Interface Converter (GBIC) uplinks. These devices, as well as the Cisco 2950T-24 and 2950C-24 products, offer intelligent services such as resiliency, protection, and quality of service (QoS) to the edge of the network by means of the convenient Cisco Cluster Management Suite (CMS) Software web interface. These devices also include Cisco Enhanced Image (EI) Software incorporated to provide smart services.

The Cisco Catalyst 2950C-24 provides 24 10/100 Ethernet ports plus two dedicated 100BASE-FX ports. The Cisco 2950T-24 switch offers a smooth upgrade path to Gigabit by utilizing existing twisted-pair cabling infrastructure with 24 10/100 ports as well as 2 dedicated 10/100/1000 Ethernet uplinks. Embedded in the Cisco 2950 Series is the CMS Software web utility, which enables support personnel simultaneously to set up and troubleshoot several Cisco desktop products using a conventional browser.

Catalyst 3560 Switches
Cisco’s Catalyst 3560 Series is a line of fixed-configuration switches that features IEEE 802.3af and Cisco prestandard Power over Ethernet capability in 10/100 Ethernet and 10/100/1000 configurations. Cisco's Catalyst 3560 switch is a proven Layer 2 switch for midsize business LAN access or branch-office environments, offering both Gigabit and Power over Ethernet options for maximum efficiency and investment protection while streamlining the deployment of new technology including VoIP, wireless access, video surveillance, and remote video kiosks. Customers can activate networkwide intelligent services such as advanced quality of service, rate limiting, access control lists, multicast administration, and high-performance IP routing while maintaining the ease of conventional network switching.

The Catalyst 3560 Series is equipped with a powerful array of capabilities that permit network expandability and higher resilience via IP routing as well as a full suite of Spanning Tree Protocol enhancements designed to maximize throughput in a Layer 2 network. Enhancements to the standard STP Protocol, such as Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Plus (PVST+), and Uplink Fast, as well as innovations like as Flex Links, maximize network uptime. Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Plus supports Layer 2 traffic balancing on redundant connections to efficiently use the additional bandwidth associated with a redundant architecture.

Advanced protocols including OPSF, Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), BGP, static routing, and PBR increase system capacity; PIM maximize system resources; and VRFLite secures traffic. data.

Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series Switches
For midsized organizations and corporate branch offices, the Cisco Catalyst 3750 switch facilitates integration of converged technologies and adapts to evolving business needs by providing configuration flexibility, ability to manage unified network traffic, and management-free configuration of intelligent system services. In addition, Cisco's Catalyst 3750 Series is optimized for high-density Gigabit Ethernet environments and includes a diverse range of switches that meet connectivity, aggregation, or small-network backbone-interface demands.

The Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series switch is offered with either the IP Base image or the Services image. The IP Base image features include industry-leading quality of service (QoS), rate-limiting, access control lists (ACLs) access control lists, and simple static and RIP routing capability. The IP Services image offers a broader selection of enterprise network functions, such as sophisticated built-in IP unicast and multicast routing.

StackWise technology is an architecture optimized for 1000 Ethernet. StackWise is intended to respond to additions, deletions, and relocations while providing consistent operation. StackWise combines as many as nine separate switches into one logical unit, using custom stack-interconnect cables and stacking utilities. Each of the switches can be any combination of the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series switches and the Cisco Catalyst 3750-E Series switches. The stack operates as a single switching unit that is directed by a master switch, chosen from among the member switches. The master switch intelligently creates and updates all the switching and optional routing databases. A working stack can accommodate new switches or delete old members with no operational interruption.

Cisco Catalyst 4500 Switches
Catalyst 4500 switches are designed for large company Local Area Network connectivity, local offices, Layer 3 distribution points, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and metropolitan Ethernet deployments. The Cisco Catalyst 4500 family consists of a series of chassis ranging from three to 10 slots and a set of supervisor engines offering up to 136 Gbps of layers 2 through 4 switching. Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series switches accept a rich set of line cards, including high-density 10/100BASE-T, 10/100/1000 (both with Power over Ethernet [PoE] availability), 100BASE-FX, 100BASE-BX-D, Gigabit Ethernet, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

The Cisco Catalyst 4500 family has a price-performance range of enclosures: Catalyst 4510R (10 slots) with backup supervisor capability), Cisco's Catalyst 4507R (seven slots) with redundant supervisor capability), Cisco Catalyst 4506 (6 expansion slots) and Cisco's Catalyst 4503 (three slots).

Cisco Catalyst 4948 Series Switches
The Catalyst 4948 Series is a wire-rate, low-latency, layers 2 through 4, single RU fixed-configuration device for server aggregation. Based on the proven Catalyst 4500 Series architecture, the Catalyst 4948 Series switch provides exceptional performance and dependability for multilayer aggregation of fast servers and workstations. Speed and scalability of intelligent system functions is made possible with specialized technology known as TCAM. Plentiful TCAM resources (64,000 entries) support high function capacity, offering wire-speed routing and switching throughput with concurrent provisioning of features that include QoS and security. This allows expandability for today's network needs with ample capacity for future expansion.

The Catalyst 4948 provides 48 ports of wire-rate 10/100/1000 Ethernet with four available wired ports that can support optional 1000BASE-X Small Form-Factor Pluggable CWDM transponders. Industry-leading reliability and maintainability are provided with optional internal AC or DC 1 + 1 redundant hot-swappable A-to-B failover power supplies and hot-swappable fans.

The Cisco Catalyst 4948 switch can separate discrete Layer 2 traffic concurrently, while conserving IP address capacity. The Cisco Catalyst 4948 Series can halt man-in-the-middle threats to the rest of network with no adjustment of the server setup.Such attacks can be recorded by the Catalyst 4948 Series for security analysis.

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches
The Cisco Catalyst 6500 switch is a high-performance modular switch/router designed for convergence of data center, corporate campus, and WAN in a single system. Enterprise WAN, Internet access, data center access functions including Multiprotocol Label Switching, high availability, quality of service, and security together with IOS Software versatility offer fast ROI in the LAN and extend that value proposition to the WAN.

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switches offer a broad array of connectivity technologies ranging from DS-0 to OC-48, 10BASE-T to 10-Gbps line cards. Cisco Catalyst 6500 switches act as the foundation of corporate WAN infrastructure by providing advanced IP routing technologies, hardware-enabled IPv4, IPv6, Multiprotocol Label Switching, and high-performance incorporated in one platform. The Cisco Catalyst 6500 switch is the premier Cisco Layer 3 switch for the enterprise Wide Area Network, connectivity, aggregation, and core edge of the enterprise network with advantages in expandability and flexibility such as 720 Gbps switch fabric performance with Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 720, the ability to scale as high as 400 million packets per second performance with distributed forwarding, 32 Gbps design for low-speed Wide Area Network aggregation, a fast processor for Layer 3 interface convergence and consistency, as well as scalable IP routing and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) operation accelerated in hardware without throughput loss.

How Progent's Consultants Can Help You with Cisco Switches
Progent's CCIE certified engineers can show you how to choose and integrate Cisco switches in a way appropriate for your present competitive needs and your strategy for downstream growth. Progent's Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts offer world-class troubleshooting for the most challenging connectivity problems, and Progent's remote service professionals can track your network traffic and uncover incipient trouble spots and resolve them so they don't seriously disturb your network. Progent's CISM certified network security specialists can show you how to develop a company-wide security policy and set up switches so they help enforce your protection strategy.

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