Switch Of Floors And Buildings; Switch Of Routers - Cabletron Systems SmartSTACK STS16-20RM Installation And User Manual

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Switch of Floors and Buildings

For network managers, multistory buildings and campuses can represent a unique
networking challenge. How can a network manager provide an efficient LAN
interconnect for users that are located on several floors of a building or in different
buildings?
Token Ring switching and the SmartStack product family can provide the best
solution. The STS16-20RM and the STS16-20FRM provide enhanced throughput
to local wiring closets that can be connected to a switch located in the data center.
Many networks consist of users located in different buildings of a campus
environment. The switches can be used as a collapsed backbone interconnecting
multiple buildings of a campus. They can provide the connectivity solution and
enhanced throughput that such campus environments require.

Switch of Routers

Router technology has had a significant impact on the design of today's
internetworks. Routers have become the cornerstone of most production networks.
Although well equipped to provide firewall, WAN connectivity, security, and
connection between dissimilar LANs, routers are unable to provide high throughput
between desktop devices and servers. Because of these limitations, routers and
switches perform complimentary functions in the network.
The STS16-20RM and the STS16-20FRM can be used as a front-end to routers to
increase performance in each subnet. Communication between local clients and
servers is enhanced at the workgroup level below the router.
The switches can also be used to back-end routers. In networks were many routers
are interconnected over Token Ring and backbone performance is not acceptable,
the switches provide nonblocking communication between the routers for
enhanced network performance. This provides protocol transparency with
enhanced throughput in each subnet between local servers and desktops, thus
allowing network managers to build logical networks as large as network layer
protocol and broadcast traffic allow.
The Switched Port Analyzer also gives a collapsed backbone network superior
network management and the ability to perform protocol analysis from a single
location. The Switch Port Analyzer provides the latest technology for monitoring
switch-based networks and helps to reduce the cost of managing these networks.
SmartStack STS16-20RM/STS16-20FRM Token Ring Switches, P/N: 9032957-01 Introduction