The newest members of Cisco's EtherSwitch® family are the EtherSwitch 10/100, EtherSwitch 1200 and EtherSwitch 1400 series (EtherSwitch 1400 and EtherSwitch 1400 FDDI) switches which are based on award-winning technology from newly-acquired Grand Junction Networks. The EtherSwitch 10/100 switch delivers the industry's best price/performance value for desktop applications. For an extremely low price per port, the desktop switch dedicates a 10 megabits-per-second (Mbps) Ethernet to every user and provides 100-Mbps Ethernet connectivity to servers and backbones for an affordable high-performance alternative to shared 10BaseT hubs. The EtherSwitch 10/100 is equipped with 25 switched Ethernet ports each supporting a single media access control (MAC) address for attachment to a workstation. Two 100BaseTX ports provide high-speed connectivity to servers and backbones.
Figure 1.
The EtherSwitch 1200 and 1400 series switches combine high-speed configuration flexibility with exceptional affordability for workgroup applications. Available for a very low cost per port, these switches are ideal for Ethernet workgroups and individual users requiring increased performance and 100BaseT, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) or future Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) connectivity to servers and backbones.
The EtherSwitch 1200 is equipped with 25 switched Ethernet ports providing 10-Mbps of bandwidth to workstations or 10BaseT hubs. Two 100BaseTX ports provide a 100-Mbps link to servers or backbones. The EtherSwitch 1400 also offers 25 switched Ethernet ports but comes with two high-speed expansion slots. The EtherSwitch 1400 FDDI, an EtherSwitch 1400 factory-configured with a FDDI fiber DAS module and one high-speed expansion slot, is also available. Field-pluggable modules provide configuration, wiring and backbone flexibility with a choice of 100BaseT and FDDI modules available supporting Category 5 unshielded twisted pair (UTP) or fiber-optic cabling. An ATM module is also planned for connectivity to ATM backbones.
These new EtherSwitch 10/100, 1200, and 1400 series switches are members of the CiscoPro Workgroup Solutions family of LAN switching products, which provide scalable bandwidth and varying levels of flexibility and affordability for growing networked applications as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Exceptional performance is the hallmark of each of the new EtherSwitch products. A 1 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) bus, extensive application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) integration, and ClearChannel(TM) architecture deliver maximum forwarding bandwidths of up to 320 Mbps and aggregate packet forwarding rates of up to 450,000 packets per second (pps) or more. A shared memory architecture with 3-megabyte (MB) packet buffer virtually eliminates packet loss and maximizes performance, as seen in Figure 3; and for 100BaseT connections, CollisionFree® full-duplex operation allows simultaneous data transmission in both directions, delivering up to 200 Mbps of bandwidth to servers, routers, or switch-to-switch connections.
Figure 3. The new EtherSwitches earned a perfect score for 6 and 12 Ethernet-to-Ethernet stream testing. In Ethernet-to-Ethernet via Fast Ethernet testing, the switches scored 100% with 9 streams and an impressive 90% with 10 streams.
This overall performance translates to tangible improvements in real-world productivity as seen in Figure 4.
Figure 4. In a real-world color publishing environment, EtherSwitch 10/100 improved network throughput 1100% over 10Base-T hub and decreased file transfer time by as much as 30 minutes on a single job.
The EtherSwitch 10/100 switch is the most cost-effective solution for providing increased performance to individual users. A high-performance upgrade to traditional 10-Mbps LANs, the switch's 25 10BaseT ports provide a dedicated 10-Mbps Ethernet to attached nodes. Two 100BaseTX ports provide 100-Mbps of bandwidth for servers and backbone connectivity as shown in Figure 5. The EtherSwitch 1200 and 1400 series switches also work in this application, trading off lowest price for configuration flexibility and support for FDDI and (future) ATM backbone connectivity.
Figure 5.
10BaseT hubs and individual nodes can be connected to the EtherSwitch 1200 and 1400 series switches to affordably boost network performance for workgroup applications, while pre- serving customer hub and adapter investments. With address caches of 1024, 2048 and 8192 available, small and large work- groups can be accommodated with UTP or fiber uplinks to 100BaseT, FDDI, or (future) ATM servers and backbone connections such as those on routers, switches, or FDDI concentrators.
The EtherSwitch 1200 delivers two 100BaseTX connections, each providing up to· 200-Mbps bandwidth in full-duplex mode.
The EtherSwitch 1400 offers a choice of two switched 100BaseT or FDDI connections or up to 16 shared 100BaseT connections to high-speed servers.
As shown in Figure 6, EtherSwitch 1200 and 1400 switches can be daisychained together (and with other EtherSwitches) via full-duplex 100BaseT, for up to 200 Mbps of bandwidth and up to 2-kilometers distances (when using fiber). Alternatively, the switches can be connected over a shared fiber or UTP 100BaseT backbone. Optionally, these interconnected switches can be connected to a backbone switch or router.
Figure 6.
For FDDI networks, the EtherSwitch 1400 FDDI provides FDDI fiber connectivity and dual-homing capabilities for redundancy. As shown in Figure 7, with an additional high- speed module installed the switch can support two FDDI connections or a mixture of FDDI and 100BaseT connections. For example, an EtherSwitch 1400 FDDI can provide FDDI backbone connectivity and, with a 100BaseT module installed, provide a low cost, local 100BaseT backbone (shared or switched) to other switches. Alternatively, the switch can support FDDI backbone connectivity and 100BaseT or FDDI server connections.
Figure 7.
| Feature | Description | Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| 10-Mbps Support | 25 switched Ethernet ports | · Devices attached to each port are guaranteed 10 Mbps of bandwidth |
| 100BaseT Support | Choice of integrated 100BaseTX switched ports (EtherSwitch 10/100 and 1200) or modular switched or shared 100BaseTX or 100BaseFX ports (EtherSwitch 1400 series) | · Provides unmatched 100BaseT configuration
flexibility to satisfy requirements for performance, cabling, and cost · Multiport repeater modules (EtherSwitch 1400 series) share 100 Mbps of bandwidth among attached devices for a lower price per port. Perfect for building server farms, supporting high-performance users, or as a cost-effective, high-speed local backbone |
| Both half-duplex and CollisionFree full-duplex operation supported (on switched ports) | · Switched ports dedicate 100-Mbps bandwidth to an attached device and support full-duplex mode for increased performance (up to 200 Mbps) and distances between switches, routers or servers (up to 2 km with fiber and full-duplex; 400 meters or less with fiber and half-duplex) | |
| FDDI Support (EtherSwitch 1400 series) | EtherSwitch 1400 FDDI ships with fiber DAS module installed. Choice of three modules, UTP SAS, fiber SAS or fiber DAS, for the EtherSwitch 1400 series expansion slots | · Uses cost-effective UTP for desktop and within-floor connectivity; allows long-distance runs (up to 2 km) with fiber in vertical high-rises and across campuses |
| IP fragmentation (RFC 791, RFC 1191) | · Enhances the efficiency of data transfers in IP networks by allowing communication on the ring using FDDI's 4500 byte maximum size packet | |
| APaRT for IPX and AppleTalk | · Works immediately in all Novell environments without labor-intensive server and workstation reconfiguration; allows AppleTalk Phase 1 and Phase 2 devices to coexist without upgrading existing Phase 1 devices | |
| Exceptional Performance | Nonblocking, ClearChannel architecture with 1-Gbps bus 3-MB shared memory buffer | · Meets the demands of a fully-populated 10-Mbps
system with all ports operating at wire-speed · Virtually eliminates dropped packets due to buffer overflow |
| Up to 450,000 pps aggregate packet forwarding rate and
320-Mbps maximum forwarding bandwidth (EtherSwitch 10/100 and 1200;
EtherSwitch 1400 series varies by inserted module) Packet forwarding rates: 14,880 pps to 10-Mbps ports; up to 133,900 pps to 100BaseT ports; up to 100,000 pps to FDDI ports |
· Delivers high-performance switching for even the most demanding workgroup applications | |
| User-Definable Switching Modes | Choice of three switching modes: · FastForward(TM): forward after destination address · FragmentFree(TM): forward after collision window · Store-and-Forward: forward after packet receipt |
· Gives network administrators the choice between lowest latency (FastForward: 31 microseconds to 10BaseT ports, 7 microseconds to 100BaseT ports) and maximum error checking |
| Uses store-and-forward mode for broadcast packets | · Allows the performance benefits of cut-through switching for unicast packets with error-checking for broadcast packets | |
| Multicast packets can be store-and-forward or same cut- through mode as unicast packets (EtherSwitch 1200 and 1400 series; EtherSwitch 10/100 always store-and-forward) | · Provides the choice of maximum error-checking for multicast packets or low latency for applications such as video | |
| Address Learning | Choice on a per port basis of dynamic addressing or manually entered static addresses. | · Dynamic addressing simplifies the management of the switch and requires no configuration |
| 1k static address table (EtherSwitch 1200 and 1400 series), 27 static address table (EtherSwitch 10/100) | · Static addressing ensures that key devices are never aged from the address table and provide a measure of additional security when accompanied by secure addressing | |
| Security Enhancements | Secure addressing: · Secures a port to an individual MAC address or, on the EtherSwitch 1200 and 1400 series switches, a group of up to 132 MAC addresses. Addresses can be learned or manually entered. · Choice of actions upon secure address violation: 1) send/not send an in-band alert, and 2) suspend, disable or leave security violation port enabled |
· For security-sensitive applications prevents
unauthorized users from accessing the network · Provides administrators the choice of level of security, notification and resulting actions |
| Password-protected Telnet (EtherSwitch 1200 and 1400 series)
and out-of-band management: · Access to the RS232 port is locked out for an administrator-defined time period upon entry of an administrator-defined number of invalid passwords |
· Gives protection against unauthorized configuration changes and unwanted intruders | |
| Intraswitch VLANs | · Controls access to sensitive resources within a workgroup or across the switched network | |
| Network Management | SNMP MIB II and SNMP MIB extensions Bridging MIB (EtherSwitch 1200 and 1400 series) SMT 7.3 FDDI MIB (EtherSwitch 1400 series) |
· Enables full management and configuration of the switches from any standards-based SNMP or SMT management system |
| Pre-compiled MIBs for SunNet Manager and Novell NetWare Management System (NMS) | · Simplifies integration into the MIB browser for supported environments | |
| Telnet support for 8 simultaneous sessions (EtherSwitch-1200 and 1400 series) | · Allows menu-based management by terminal emulation software over the network | |
| Out-of-band management system through an EIA/TIA-232 port to a local terminal or modem | · Permits management by a local administrator, central MIS group or service bureau | |
| Network statistics gathered on a per-port basis or by using an RMON probe | · Facilitates troubleshooting and capacity planning by characterizing each port's utilization, errors, and other key statistics | |
| SPAN support for connection to a network analyzer or RMON probe | · Offers complete monitoring of a single port, group of ports or the entire switch from a single network analyzer or RMON probe attached to a switch port | |
| Flash EPROMs for TFTP download of software | · Reduces the cost of administering software upgrades by downloading from a centralized location | |
| Extensive LED display including utilization meter for gauging the current aggregate forwarding bandwidth of the switch, as well as the peak utilization in a user-definable period | · Provides comprehensive visual management of the switch | |
| IEEE 802.1d Spanning Tree Support (EtherSwitch 1200 and 1400 series) | Selectable flooding control on statically assigned address- or single station-ports prevents the ports from receiving traffic destined to unknown addresses | · Saves bandwidth by minimizing superfluous traffic |
| One spanning tree per VLAN | · Provides simplified network configuration and improved fault tolerance for each VLAN | |
| Intraswitch VLANs (EtherSwitch 1200 and 1400 series) | Up to 4 port-configurable VLANs supported within each switch | · Eliminates superfluous broadcast traffic by creating multiple broadcast domains; firewalls groups from each other in case of traffic storms |
| Isolated and overlapped VLANs supported | · Allows sharing of central resources such as routers and servers among multiple VLANs | |
| Source Port Filtering (EtherSwitch 1200 and 1400 series) | Designates Restricted Static Addresses for which the forwarding of packets to these destinations is allowed only when received on specified ports. Packets to restricted static address destinations received on other ports are filtered. | · Provides additional security · Allows for load balancing of traffic such as video by using the same multicast address for streams sent from servers on different ports |
| Multicast Address Packet Filtering (EtherSwitch 1200 and 1400 series) | Registers MAC-layer multicast addresses and lists the ports to which these packets are to be forwarded; disables normal flooding of unregistered multicast packets on a per-port basis | · Reduces unnecessary traffic to non-registered ports and ports where normal flooding of unregistered multicast packets has been disabled |
| Allows video servers to send a single multicast video stream to a registered group of ports. | · Minimizes server utilization for dedicated groupcast applications such as video | |
| Can be combined with source port filtering to load balance multicast traffic | · Increases network performance for multimedia applications |
Following are the part numbers and availability for the EtherSwitch 10/100, EtherSwitch 1200, and EtherSwitch 1400 series switches and modules. All products are currently orderable
| Product | Description | Availability |
| EtherSwitch 10/100 CPW1100 |
Desktop switch with 25 switched Ethernet ports, 2 100BaseTX ports, single MAC address on all ports except one unlimited address backbone port | 12/31/95 |
| EtherSwitch 1200 CPW1200 |
Workgroup switch with 25 switched Ethernet ports, 2 100BaseTX ports, 1024 address cache | 12/31/95 |
| EtherSwitch 1400 CPW1402 |
Workgroup switch with 25 switched Ethernet ports, 2 high-speed expansion slots, 2048 address cache | 12/31/95 |
| EtherSwitch 1400 CPW1408 |
Workgroup switch with 25 switched Ethernet ports, 2 high-speed expansion slots, 8192 address cache | 12/31/95 |
| EtherSwitch 1400
FDDI CPW1442 |
Workgroup switch with 25 switched Ethernet ports, 1 FDDI fiber DAS port, 1 high-speed expansion slot, 2048 address cache | 12/31/95 |
| EtherSwitch 1400
FDDI CPW1448 |
Workgroup switch with 25 switched Ethernet ports, 1 FDDI fiber DAS port, 1 high-speed expansion slot, 8192 address cache | 12/31/95 |
| Product | Description | Availability |
| CPW1411-X | 1-port 100Base-TX module | 12/31/95 |
| CPW1418-X | 8-port 100BaseTX module | 12/31/95 |
| CPW1421-X | 1-port 100BaseFX module | 12/31/95 |
| CPW1424-X | 4-port 100BaseFX module | 12/31/95 |
| CPW1431-X | FDDI UTP SAS (CDDI) module | 12/31/95 |
| CPW1441-X | FDDI Fiber SAS module | 12/31/95 |
| CPW1442-X | FDDI Fiber DAS module | 12/31/95 |
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