Cisco Catalyst 3850 Deployment Manual page 28

The new StackWise-480 architecture allows you to build a high-speed stack ring with superior features and
services scalability compared with StackWise Plus. The initial software version supports physically stacking up to
four Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switches to form a stack ring. To accommodate varying port density requirements, the
hardware can support both 48- and 24-port switches in a single stack ring. The Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switch
deployed in stack mode is designed to deliver deterministic nonblocking switching performance to as many as 208
ports, including both wired and wireless network devices. The Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switch delivers uncompromised
hardware-accelerated, rich integrated borderless network services and enterprise-class system resiliency. (See
Figures 4 and 5).
Figure 4.
Figure 5.
The system architecture of the Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switch is designed to evolve as a solution engine that enables
converged access infrastructure and rich integrated technologies with unparalleled application performance. This
new Cisco switch delivers the simplified system operation tools that network administrators need to manage
increasingly complex and feature-rich networks.
Cisco StackWise-480 provides a robust distributed forwarding architecture through each stack member switch and
a unified, fully centralized control and management plane to simplify operation in a large-scale network design.
One switch in a stack ring is elected to be the active switch. The active switch controls the management plane of
the entire stack from both the network and user perspective. Figure 6 illustrates the physical versus logical view of
a system in stack configuration mode.
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Cisco Catalyst 3850 StackWise-480 Switch Stack Front View
Cisco Catalyst 3850 StackWise-480 Switch Stack Rear View
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