Cisco's latest generation of switches are aimed at providing intelligence at the edge of the network, where one network environment talks with another one. The need for intelligence at the network edge is being driven primarily by four key developments:
- Growth in PC computing ability
- Introduction of bandwidth-consuming applications
- Presence of highly sensitive data on the network
- Larger variety of appliances, e.g. IP phones and wireless LAN bridges
The most recent corporate applications demand higher bandwidth resulting in the necessity to differentiate and manage traffic flow. Applications like enterprise resource planning and Voice over IP must have more network bandwidth than less time-sensitive processes such as FTP or, for e-mail, SMTP. It is not any longer acceptable, for instance, to have a large file transfer destined to one port on a switch to increase the latency, and lower the quality, in voice data destined to another port on a given switch. This situation is eliminated by ensuring that voice processes are appropriately identified and expedited throughout the environment.
Cisco switches deliver exceptional QoS to help ensure that traffic is differentiated and assigned priorities, and that bottlenecks are avoided. Configuration of Quality of Service is greatly simplified through automatic Quality of Service, a process that detects Cisco IP phones and sets up the switch for the appropriate categorization and exit buffering. This enhances process prioritization and network accessibility without forcing your network management group to devise a complicated set up strategy.
With Cisco Catalyst switches for small and midsize businesses (SMBs), Cisco allows netrwork managers to get the full benefits of adding smart services into their networks. Cisco's switches allow you to deploy features that make the connectivity environment highly available to accommodate time-critical requirements, expandable to facilitate future growth, secure so as to guard sensitive information, and configurable for differentiating and managing traffic flows to enhance network operations.
Cisco 2950 Line of Switches
Cisco Catalyst 2950SX-24, 2950-24 and 2950-12 non-modular, managed Ethernet switches offer fundamental workgroup networking for small to medium-size businesses (SMBs). These wire-rate desktop switches offer Cisco IOS Software features for basic data, video, and voice services at the network edge.
Cisco 2950G-12, 2950G-24, and 2950G-48 Series are stackable switches that provide wire-speed connectivity to the desktop and Gbit uplink connectivity using several optional Gigabit Interface Converter uplinks. These devices, as well as the Catalyst 2950T-24 and 2950C-24 devices, offer smart features like resiliency, protection, and QoS to the network edge using the simple CMS Software web interface. These devices also come with Cisco EI Software incorporated to implement intelligent services.
The Cisco Catalyst 2950C-24 switch offers 24 10/100 Ethernet ports plus 2 fixed 100BASE-FX ports. The Catalyst 2950T-24 Series provides a smooth migration path to Gigabit by using existing copper cabling infrastructure with 24 10/100 Ethernet ports as well as two dedicated 10/100/1000 Ethernet uplinks. Incorporated in the Cisco 2950 switch is the Cisco Cluster Management Suite Software web interface, which enables network managers simultaneously to configure and repair multiple Cisco desktop products using a standard browser.
Cisco Catalyst 3560 Family Switches
Cisco’s Catalyst 3560 family is a line of fixed-configuration switches that features IEEE 802.3af and Cisco Power over Ethernet (PoE) functionality in 10/100 Ethernet and 10/100/1000 configurations. The Cisco Catalyst 3560 Series switch is an ideal Layer 2 switch for midsize business LAN connectivity or local-offices, combining both Gigabit and Power over Ethernet (PoE) configurations for maximum efficiency and investment protection while facilitating the deployment of new applications including Voice over IP, wireless access, video surveillance, and remote video kiosks. IT managers can activate comprehensive smart features including advanced quality of service (QoS), rate limiting, access control lists, multicast administration, and broadband IP routing with the ease of conventional network switching.
The Catalyst 3560 Series switch is equipped with a robust array of features that allow for network scalability and enhanced resilience through IP routing as well as a complete complement of Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) improvements aimed to maximize availability in a Layer 2 network. Enhancements to the conventional Spanning Tree Protocol, including PVST+, and Uplink Fast, plus advances like as Flex Links, maximize network uptime. Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Plus allows for Layer 2 traffic balancing on redundant links to take advantage of the extra capacity inherent in a redundant architecture.
Advanced routing mechanisms including Open Shortest Path First, EIGRP, BGP, static routing, and Policy Based Routing increase network scale; PIM maximize network resources; and Virtual Route Forwarding Lite (VRFLite) secures traffic. data.
Cisco Catalyst 3750 Family Switches
For mid-size organizations and corporate branch offices, the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series switch facilitates integration of converged applications and adapts to changing business needs by offering setup versatility, ability to manage converged network patterns, and automatic set up of smart system functions. Also, the Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series is engineered for high-volume Gigabit Ethernet environments and incorporates a diverse selection of switches that comply with connectivity, aggregation, or small-network backbone-connectivity demands.
The Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series switch is offered with the IP Base or the Services image. The IP Base image functions include industry-leading QoS, rate-limiting, ACLs, and basic static and Routing Information Protocol routing support. The IP Services image provides a broader selection of enterprise network functions, such as advanced hardware-based IP unicast/multicast routing.
Cisco StackWise technology is a mechanism optimized for 1000 Ethernet. This technology is intended to respond to additions, deletions, and relocations while maintaining constant performance. StackWise technology combines up to nine individual switches into a single logical unit, utilizing special stack-interconnect cables and stacking utilities. The individual switches can be any combination of the Catalyst 3750 Series and Cisco's Catalyst 3750-E Series switches. The stack operates as an individual switching device that is managed by a master switch, chosen from one of the stack of switches. The control switch automatically builds and keeps current all the switching and optional routing tables. A running stack can accommodate new switches or delete old members without service interruption.
Cisco Catalyst 4500 Switches
Cisco's Catalyst 4500 Series switches are targeted for corporate LAN connectivity, satellite offices, Network Layer distribution points, small and midsize businesses (SMBs), and metropolitan (metro) Ethernet deployments. The Catalyst 4500 Series comprises a series of enclosures containing from 3 to ten slots and a line of supervisor mechanisms delivering as high as 136 Gbps of Layer 2-4 switching. Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series switches accept a rich set of interface cards, including dense 10/100, 10/100/1000BASE-T (both with 802.3af availability), 100BASE-LX10, 100BASE-BX-D, Gigabit Ethernet, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
The Cisco Catalyst 4500 family offers a price-performance range of enclosures: Cisco Catalyst 4510R (10 slots) with redundant supervisor option), Cisco's Catalyst 4507R (7 expansion slots) with backup supervisor capability), Cisco's Catalyst 4506 (six expansion slots) and Catalyst 4503 (3 slots).
Catalyst 4948 Series Switches
The Cisco Catalyst 4948 Series switch is a wire-speed, low-latency, layers 2 through 4, one rack unit (RU) fixed-configuration switch for top-of-rack aggregation. Based on the proven Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series switch architecture, the Catalyst 4948 Series switch offers exceptional performance and dependability for low density, multilayer aggregation of high performance servers and desktops. High performance and scalability of smart system functions is made possible with dedicated resources called TCAM. Plentiful TCAM resources (64K entries) enable high function density, which provides wire-rate routing and switching performance with simultaneous provisioning of features that include Quality of Service (QoS) and security. This helps ensure expandability for today's traffic requirements with ample room for downstream growth.
The Cisco Catalyst 4948 switch provides 48 ports of wire-rate 10/100/1000 with 4 alternative wired ports that can support 1000BASE-X Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) optics. Exceptional dependability and maintainability are delivered with available internal AC or DC 1 + 1 hot-swappable A-to-B failover power units and redundant fans.
The Catalyst 4948 Series can isolate different Layer 2 traffic at the same time, while conserving IP address space. The Cisco Catalyst 4948 Series switch can halt IP spoofing threats to the rest of community with no change to the server configuration.These attempts can be logged by the Cisco Catalyst 4948 Series switch for analysis.
Cisco Catalyst 6500 Switches
The Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series is a high-performance modular switch and router engineered for consolidation of data center, corporate campus, and WAN in a single system. Enterprise Wide Area Network, Internet connectivity, data center connectivity functions such as Multiprotocol Label Switching, high availability, quality of service (QoS), and security combined with Cisco IOS Software versatility offer investment protection in the Local Area Network and extend that value proposition to the WAN.
Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switches offer a wide array of interface technologies ranging from DS-0 to OC-48, 10Mbps to 10 Gigabit modules. Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switches act as the core of enterprise Wide Area Network architectures by providing advanced IP routing, built-in IPv4 and 6, Multiprotocol Label Switching, and top-level throughput incorporated in a single device. The Catalyst 6500 Series is the premier Cisco Layer 3 switching platform for the corporate Wide Area Network, connectivity, aggregation, and core edge of the corporate infrastructure with benefits in scalability and versatility such as 720 Gbps switch fabric backplane capacity with Catalyst 6500 Supervisor Engine 720, the power to expand as high as 400 million packets per second switching/routing performance with distributed forwarding, 32 Gbps design for low-speed WAN aggregation, a high-speed processor for Layer 3 interface convergence and consistency, plus scalable IP routing and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) functions accelerated in silicon with no performance loss.
How Progent's Experts Can Assist You with Catalyst Switching Solutions
Progent's CCIE qualified consultants can help you choose and deploy switches in a manner that make sense for your present business needs and your plans for future growth. Progent's Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts offer enterprise-class troubleshooting for the most challenging network problems, and Progent's on-line service specialists can monitor your network traffic and uncover early-stage problems and repair them before they significantly impact productivity. Progent's CISSP qualified network security consultants can show you how to create a comprehensive security strategy and deploy Cisco switches so as to help enforce your protection plans.
For more details concerning Progent's professional assistance for Cisco products, select a topic:
Introduction to Progent's Cisco Consulting Services
Immediate Online Help from a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert Consulting Professional
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If you wish to contact Progent about professional assistance for Cisco networking, call 1-800-993-9400 or e-mail cisco-help@progent.com.
