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Today, your desktop population
probably requires a mix of 10 Mbps and
100 Mbps service to meet the individual
demands of your users. As you deliver
higher speeds to the desktop, server
connections may become strained, so you
need options to scale to Fast Ethernet,
Gigabit Ethernet, or ATM for high-speed
desktop and server connections as well as
in the backbone. With the SuperStack II
family of switches, you can support all
of your bandwidth requirements with
the appropriate technology and the
appropriate level of control.
Today, Ethernet is the most popular
topology for implementing local area
networks. Ethernet provides bandwidth
that can be either shared across a number
of users using hubs, or dedicated to
workstations using switched technology.
The availability of low-cost Ethernet
switches has also made it possible to
deliver dedicated 10 Mbps full-duplex
links to the desktop, for affordable high-
performance, high-functionality, and
highly manageable networks.
Fast Ethernet, based on the Ethernet
standard, is a high-speed technology that
runs over your existing infrastructure,
works with your existing management
systems, and requires no retraining by
your IT staff. Fast Ethernet is one of the
most popular high-speed technologies
because it's cost effective, stable, and
compatible with existing Ethernet LAN
environments. Fast Ethernet runs over
fiber and copper. For greater perfor-
mance, full-duplex is also supported.
10/100 Ethernet/Fast Ethernet with
autosensing capability is one of the
most economical and flexible ways to
add bandwidth immediately—while
maintaining migration options to
higher bandwidth in the future. 10/100
technology combines conventional
10BASE-T and high-speed 100BASE-
TX support in one device, delivering
higher bandwidth to the desktop,
aggregating 10/100 hubs, and
maintaining the status quo for those
who are efficiently served by 10 Mbps
Ethernet. With 10/100 autosensing
functionality, there is no need to
configure individual switched ports.
The switch automatically senses the
speed of the connected end device
(either 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps) and
channels the data through at the
appropriate speed.
Gigabit Ethernet retains the traditional
simplicity and manageability of
Ethernet and Fast Ethernet, making it
easy to integrate with existing LAN
equipment. It allows a tenfold increase
in backbone bandwidth over Fast
Ethernet with minimal impact on
support staff. The extra bandwidth
helps you deal with unplanned changes
and additions to the network, and
frees you from constantly tuning the
network. Gigabit Ethernet is a powerful
backbone/server solution because it
delivers phenomenal bandwidth cost
effectively, preserves the Ethernet frame
format, and works with your existing
traffic management systems.
ATM is an established LAN backbone
technology that offers significant
benefits to larger organizations by
providing tight integration between
LAN and WAN environments and
offering high levels of resilience and
redundancy. In the LAN environment,
OC-3c (155 Mbps) and OC-12c
(622 Mbps) connections are used to
communicate across the network. While
these connections do not provide the
raw bandwidth of Gigabit Ethernet,
ATM provides alternative methods for
delivering effective backbone solutions,
such as Quality of Service (QoS), which
guarantees bandwidth to applications.
The control offered by ATM enables
the deterministic delivery of applications
and services in complex network
environments.
Intranets and extranets, while proving
indispensable for companies of all sizes,
are also causing new traffic management
problems. Hypertext links between
servers and e-mails create any-to-any
traffic that are overwhelming legacy
LAN routers. As a result, companies are
experiencing more bottlenecks between
subnetworks. Layer 3 switching solves
these intranet bottleneck problems by
embedding classical routing in the
switch hardware that routes traffic at
high speeds while intelligently isolating
faults, containing broadcast traffic, and
providing seamless subnet/VLAN
connections.
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