Cisco's latest line of smart switches focus on offering intelligence at the edge of the network, where one network talks with another one. The need for intelligence at the edge of the network is fueled primarily by four important trends:
- Increase in PC processing power
- Introduction of throughput-intensive applications
- Presence of highly sensitive data on the LAN
- Larger assortment of appliances, e.g. IP phones and wireless LAN bridges
The latest line-of-business applications demand higher bandwidth resulting in a need to differentiate and manage network traffic. Applications like enterprise resource planning and Voice over IP need a higher priority to network bandwidth than less performance-sensitive applications like File Transfer Protocol or, for messaging, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It is not any longer acceptable, for example, for a large file transfer destined to one port on a switch to increase the latency, and lower the intelligibility, in voice data destined to a different port on the same switch. This situation is eliminated by ensuring that voice traffic is appropriately classified and expedited throughout the network.
Cisco switches implement industry-leading Quality of Service (QoS) to make sure that network traffic is classified and prioritized, and that congestion is eliminated. Set up of Quality of Service is dramatically simplified through automatic QoS, a feature that detects Cisco IP phones and sets up the switch for the right categorization and exit buffering. This optimizes process prioritization and network accessibility without requiring your network management department to implement a complicated set up strategy.
With Catalyst switches for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), Cisco allows IT managers to realize all the benefits of adding smart services into their networks. Catalyst switches make it possible to install features that make the network infrastructure highly available to accommodate time-critical needs, expandable to support future growth, secure enough to guard confidential data, and configurable for classifying and prioritizing traffic flows to enhance network operations.
Catalyst 2950 Line
Cisco Catalyst 2950-24 and 2950-12 non-modular, managed 10/100 switches offer fundamental workgroup networking for small to medium-sized companies. These wire-speed desktop switches offer Cisco IOS Software features for simple mixed-media traffic services at the edge of the network.
Catalyst 2950G-12, 2950G-24, and 2950G-48 Series switches are stackable switches that provide wire-speed connectivity to the desktop and Gbit uplink capability by means of several optional Gigabit Interface Converter (GBIC) products. These appliances, in addition to the Cisco Catalyst 2950T-24 and 2950C-24 devices, offer smart features such as resiliency, security, and QoS to the network edge using the simple Cisco Cluster Management Suite (CMS) web-based utility. The devices also come with Cisco EI Software installed to support intelligent services.
The Cisco 2950C-24 switch provides 24 10/100 Ethernet ports as well as two fixed 100BASE ports. The Cisco Catalyst 2950T-24 Series offers an easy upgrade solution to Gigabit Ethernet by using existing twisted-pair cabling environments with 24 auto-sensing 10/100 ports plus 2 dedicated 10/100/1000BASE-T uplinks. Incorporated in the Catalyst 2950 is the Cisco Cluster Management Suite web-based interface, which allows you to set up and troubleshoot several Catalyst desktop appliances using a conventional browser.
Catalyst 3560 Family Switches
Cisco’s Catalyst 3560 family is a line of non-modular switches that features IEEE 802.3af and Cisco prestandard Power over Ethernet (PoE) functionality in 10/100 and Gigabit implementations. The Catalyst 3560 switch is an ideal access-layer switch for small enterprise network connectivity or satellite-offices, combining both Gigabit Ethernet and PoE configurations for maximum efficiency and investment protection while streamlining the installation of the latest technology including IP telephony, wireless access, video surveillance, and remote video kiosks. IT managers can deploy comprehensive intelligent services such as advanced quality of service (QoS), rate management, ACLs, multicast management, and fast IP routing while maintaining the simplicity of conventional network switching.
Cisco's Catalyst 3560 family switch is equipped with a powerful set of capabilities that permit network expandability and higher availability via IP routing plus a full suite of Spanning Tree Protocol improvements designed to maximize throughput in a Layer 2 LAN. Improvements to the conventional Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), including PVST+, and Uplink Fast, as well as advances like as Flex Links Layer 2 interfaces, maximize network uptime. Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Plus supports Data Link Layer traffic balancing on backup connections to efficiently use the additional bandwidth associated with a redundant architecture.
Advanced routing mechanisms including OPSF, Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), BGP, and static routing increase system capacity; Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) optimizes network resources; and Virtual Route Forwarding Lite (VRFLite) secures traffic. data.
Catalyst 3750 Series Switches
For mid-size organizations and corporate local sites, the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series facilitates deployment of unified applications and accommodates evolving business needs by offering configuration versatility, support for converged network patterns, and automatic set up of smart system functions. Also, the Cisco Catalyst 3750 switch is optimized for high-density Gigabit deployments and incorporates a wide selection of switches that comply with connectivity, aggregation, or small-system backbone-interface requirements.
The Cisco Catalyst 3750 switch is available with the IP Base image or the Services image. The IP Base image capabilities include advanced quality of service (QoS), rate-limiting, ACLs, and basic static and Routing Information Protocol (RIP) routing capability. The IP Services image offers a broader selection of enterprise network features, including advanced built-in IP unicast and multicast routing.
Cisco StackWise technology is an architecture optimized for Gigabit Ethernet. StackWise is designed to respond to installs, deletions, and redeployments while maintaining constant performance. StackWise combines as many as nine separate switches into a single logical device, using special stack-interface cables and stacking software. Each of the switches can be any combination of Cisco's Catalyst 3750 Series switches and the Cisco Catalyst 3750-E Series. The stack behaves as a single switching appliance that is directed by a master switch, selected from among the stack of switches. The master switch intelligently builds and keeps current all the switching and optional routing databases. A working stack can accommodate new devices or delete existing switches with no operational interruption.
Cisco Catalyst 4500 Family Switches
Catalyst 4500 Series switches are designed for enterprise Local Area Network access, branch offices, Layer 3 distribution locations, small and midsize businesses (SMBs), and metro Ethernet installations. The Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series consists of a selection of chassis ranging from 3 to ten expansion slots and a set of control mechanisms delivering up to 136 Gbps of Layer 2-4 switching. Cisco Catalyst 4500 family switches accept an extensive set of line cards, including dense 10/100 Ethernet, 10/100/1000 Ethernet (either one with 802.3af options), 100BASE-FX, 100BASE-LX10, plus 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
The Catalyst 4500 Series offers a value-oriented selection of enclosures: Cisco Catalyst 4510R (10-module capacity) with backup supervisor option), Cisco's Catalyst 4507R (7 expansion slots) with redundant supervisor option), Cisco's Catalyst 4506 (6 slots) and Catalyst 4503 (three expansion slots).
Catalyst 4948 Family Switches
The Catalyst 4948 Series switch is a wire-speed, low-latency, layer 2 through layer 4, single rack unit fixed-configuration device for rack-optimized server switching. Based on the tested Catalyst 4500 switch hardware and software architecture, the Cisco Catalyst 4948 Series switch offers high performance and dependability for multilayer aggregation of fast servers and workstations. Speed and expandability of intelligent system services is enabled through specialized mechanisms called TCAM. Ample TCAM resources (64K entries) enable high feature capacity, which provides wire-rate routing and switching performance with simultaneous support of services such as QoS and protection. This helps ensure expandability for current traffic needs with plenty of room for future growth.
The Cisco Catalyst 4948 switch offers 48 ports of wire-rate 10/100/1000BASE-T with four available wired ports that can support optional 1000BASE-X Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) optics. Industry-leading dependability and maintainability are provided with optional internal AC or DC 1 + 1 hot-swappable A-to-B failover power units and hot-swappable fans.
The Cisco Catalyst 4948 Series switch can separate discrete data link layer traffic concurrently, while preserving IP address capacity. The Cisco Catalyst 4948 switch can halt IP spoofing assaults to the rest of network with no modification of the server setup.Such attempts can be logged by the Cisco Catalyst 4948 switch for auditing.
Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches
The Catalyst 6500 Series is a high-performance modular switch and router designed for consolidation of data center, campus, and WAN in a single device. Corporate WAN, Internet connectivity, data center connectivity features such as Multiprotocol Label Switching, high availability, quality of service, and security combined with IOS Software scalability provide investment protection in the LAN and expand that value proposition to the WAN.
Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switches support a wide selection of interface protocols ranging from DS-0 to OC-48, 10BASE-T to 10-GE line cards. Catalyst 6500 switches act as the core of enterprise WAN infrastructure by providing advanced IP routing technologies, hardware-enabled IPv4 and 6, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), and outstanding speed incorporated in one device. The Catalyst 6500 switch is the top Cisco Layer 3 switching solution for the enterprise WAN, access, aggregation, and core edge of the enterprise network with benefits in expandability and flexibility such as 720 Gbps switch fabric backplane performance with Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 720, the ability to expand as high as 400 Mpps performance with intelligent forwarding, 32 Gbps design for slower WAN aggregation, a fast CPU for Layer 3 protocol convergence and consistency, plus scalable IP routing and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) functions accelerated in hardware with no performance loss.
How Progent's Experts Can Help You with Catalyst Switches
Progent's CCIE qualified consultants can show you how to select and integrate Cisco switches in a way appropriate for your existing competitive requirements and your plans for future growth. Progent's Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts offer world-class troubleshooting for complex network problems, and Progent's remote support specialists can monitor your network operations and detect early-stage trouble spots and resolve them before they seriously disturb productivity. Progent's CISA certified security consultants can show you how to create a comprehensive security plan and implement switches so as to help support your security strategy.
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