HP 2424M User Manual

HP ProCurve Switches & Hu b s

HP ProCurve Switch 4000M HP ProCurve Switch 8000M HP ProCurve Switch 2424M HP ProCurve Switch 1600M

January 15, 2000 Version 3.2b

reviewer’s guide

HP ProCurve Switch 4000M

HP ProCurve Switch 2424M

Less Work, More Network

HP ProCurve Switch 4000M / 8000M / 2424M / 1600M Reviewer’s Guide

Table of Contents

1. BACKGROUND .............................................................................................................5

1.1 HP’s Proactive Networking...................................................................................................................................5

1.2 What is a Switch?...................................................................................................................................................5

1.3 Hewlett-Packard Switch Products........................................................................................................................5

1.3.1 ProCurve Switches Covered in this Guide ..........................................................................................................5

1.3.2 Other Switches Available From HP ....................................................................................................................6

1.4 HP Switch Positioning ...........................................................................................................................................8

1.4.1 Positioning for the HP ProCurve Switch 4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M ..........................................................8

1.4.2 Switch 8000M / 4000M / 2424M / 1600M Comparison.....................................................................................9

2. EVALUATION FEATURES AND BENEFITS...............................................................10

2.1 Feature Set Summary..........................................................................................................................................10

2.2 Architecture..........................................................................................................................................................11

2.2.1 Store-and-Forward ............................................................................................................................................11

2.2.2 Backplane Design..............................................................................................................................................11

2.2.2.1 Backplanes: Chassis vs. Stackable............................................................................................................12

2.2.3 Packet Buffer Memory ......................................................................................................................................12

2.2.4 HP ProCurve Switch 100/1000Base-T Module ................................................................................................12

2.2.5 HP ProCurve Switch 2424M Gigabit Stacking Module....................................................................................13

2.3 IEEE 802.3x Flow Control ..................................................................................................................................13

2.4 Automatic Broadcast Control.............................................................................................................................13

2.5 Automatic Gateway Configuration ....................................................................................................................14

2.6 Switch Meshing (LAN Aggregation) ..................................................................................................................14

2.7 QoS Features ........................................................................................................................................................15

2.7.1 Incoming IEEE 802.1p Priority Tag Support....................................................................................................15

2.7.2 In-Switch 802.1p Tagging.................................................................................................................................15

2.7.3 IP-ToS Support..................................................................................................................................................16

2.7.4 Diff-Serv Support..............................................................................................................................................16

2.8 IGMP Support .....................................................................................................................................................16

2.9 IEEE 802.1Q VLAN Support .............................................................................................................................17

2.10 Port Trunking (Link Aggregation) ....................................................................................................................17

2.10.1 Implementation of Cisco's Fast EtherChannel

2.10.2 HP Trunking..................................................................................................................................................18

2.11 Filtering ................................................................................................................................................................18

2.11.1 Layer 2 and Layer 3 Filtering .......................................................................................................................18

2.11.2 Broadcast Storm Prevention..........................................................................................................................19

............................................................................................18

HP ProCurve Switch 4000M / 8000M / 2424M / 1600M Reviewer’s Guide

2.12 Port Security.........................................................................................................................................................19

2.13 Flexibility ..............................................................................................................................................................19

2.14 Reliability..............................................................................................................................................................20

2.14.1 Availability....................................................................................................................................................20

2.14.1.1 MTBF...................................................................................................................................................20

2.14.2 Lifetime Warranty (Best in the Industry)......................................................................................................20

2.14.3 Service and Support ......................................................................................................................................21

2.14.4 Year 2000 Compliance..................................................................................................................................21

2.15 Network Management .........................................................................................................................................21

2.15.1 MIB Support .................................................................................................................................................22

2.15.2 RMON Support.............................................................................................................................................22

2.15.3 HP Extended RMON ....................................................................................................................................22

2.15.4 Network Monitoring Port..............................................................................................................................23

2.15.5 Console Support............................................................................................................................................23

3. PERFORMANCE TESTING .........................................................................................24

3.1 Throughput/Packet Loss Rate ............................................................................................................................24

3.1.1 HP ProCurve Switch 4000M / 8000M ..............................................................................................................24

3.1.2 HP ProCurve Switch 2424M.............................................................................................................................24

3.1.3 HP ProCurve Switch 1600M.............................................................................................................................25

3.1.4 Gigabit Port Throughput ...................................................................................................................................25

3.2 Congestion Control..............................................................................................................................................25

3.2.1 Unidirectional Congestion Testing....................................................................................................................25

3.2.2 Bi-directional Congestion Testing (X-Stream)..................................................................................................26

3.3 Latency .................................................................................................................................................................26

3.4 Broadcast Latency ...............................................................................................................................................27

4. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION .....................................................................................28

4.1 ProCurve Networking Web Site.........................................................................................................................28

4.2 Reseller Plaza .......................................................................................................................................................28

4.3 White papers ........................................................................................................................................................28

5. PRICING.......................................................................................................................29

6. APPENDIX A: PERFORMANCE FIGURES.................................................................30

6.1 HP ProCurve Switch 4000M / 8000M................................................................................................................30

6.1.1 Throughput test .................................................................................................................................................30

6.1.1.1 100BT .......................................................................................................................................................30

6.1.1.2 10BT .........................................................................................................................................................30

6.1.2 Latency Test - unicast traffic.............................................................................................................................30

6.1.2.1 100Mbps ...................................................................................................................................................30

6.1.2.2 10Mbps .....................................................................................................................................................30

6.1.3 Latency Test - broadcast traffic.........................................................................................................................31

HP ProCurve Switch 4000M / 8000M / 2424M / 1600M Reviewer’s Guide

6.1.3.1 100Mbps ...................................................................................................................................................31

6.1.3.2 10Mbps .....................................................................................................................................................31

6.2 HP ProCurve Switch 2424M...............................................................................................................................32

6.2.1 Throughput test .................................................................................................................................................32

6.2.1.1 100BT .......................................................................................................................................................32

6.2.1.2 10BT .........................................................................................................................................................32

6.2.2 Latency Test - unicast traffic.............................................................................................................................32

6.2.2.1 100Mbps ...................................................................................................................................................32

6.2.2.2 10Mbps .....................................................................................................................................................32

6.2.3 Latency Test - broadcast traffic.........................................................................................................................33

6.2.3.1 100Mbps ...................................................................................................................................................33

6.2.3.2 10Mbps .....................................................................................................................................................33

6.3 HP ProCurve Switch 1600M...............................................................................................................................34

6.3.1 Throughput test .................................................................................................................................................34

6.3.1.1 100BT .......................................................................................................................................................34

6.3.1.2 10BT .........................................................................................................................................................34

6.3.2 Latency Test - unicast traffic.............................................................................................................................34

6.3.2.1 100Mbps ...................................................................................................................................................34

6.3.2.2 10Mbps .....................................................................................................................................................34

6.3.3 Latency Test - broadcast traffic.........................................................................................................................35

6.3.3.1 100Mbps ...................................................................................................................................................35

6.3.3.2 10Mbps .....................................................................................................................................................35

6.4 HP ProCurve Switch 100/1000Base-T Module .................................................................................................36

6.4.1.1 1000BT .....................................................................................................................................................36

6.4.1.2 100BT .......................................................................................................................................................36

6.5 HP ProCurve Switch Gigabit-SX Module .........................................................................................................36

6.5.1.1 Gigabit-SX................................................................................................................................................36

6.6 HP ProCurve Switch Gigabit-LX Module.........................................................................................................36

6.6.1.1 Gigabit-LX................................................................................................................................................36

HP ProCurve Switch 4000M / 8000M / 2424M / 1600M Reviewer’s Guide

1. Background

This Switch Reviewer’s Guide will help network testing engineers at computer trade publications, resellers and end-user sites evaluate the merits of the HP ProCurve Switches. Hewlett-Packard Company created this guide to help reviewers understand the benefits of the HP ProCurve Switches.

1.1 HP’s Proactive Networking

HP proactive networking is an extensible line of products working together to provide the control network administrators need to deliver the network uptime and performance that their organizations require. This guide describes one part of HP proactive networking: the HP ProCurve Switch 4000M, HP ProCurve Switch 8000M, the HP ProCurve Switch 2424M and HP ProCurve Switch 1600M products.

The HP ProCurve Switches 4000M/8000M/2424M and 1600M have been designed from the start to provide not only a low cost, high performance, scalable switched environment, but to do so with minimal configuration requirements. This, combined with the industry-leading lifetime

warranty and network management designed to easily help the network administrator proactively provide network optimization, leads to a switched environment that is easy to implement, maintain and grow.

1.2 What is a Switch?

In their simplest form, switches are multi-port bridges. With the technology that now exists, switches can operate at or near media-speed on all their ports simultaneously, allowing data flow to different segments on the switch to appear to occur simultaneously. It is this simultaneity that provides the main benefits of a switch, lowering or eliminating traffic bottlenecks that might be present in a shared environment.

1.3 Hewlett-Packard Switch Products

1.3.1 ProCurve Switches Covered in this Guide

This guide covers the following Hewlett-Packard switch products:

HP ProCurve Switch 4000M

The HP ProCurve Switch 4000M is a modular wiring closet switch that comes standard with forty fully-switched 10/100 Base-T UTP autosensing ports, with five open slots for additional modules. The HP ProCurve Switch can support up to eighty 10/100 autosensing 10/100Base-T ports, and is ideal for scaleable/expandable low-cost 10/100 desktop switching for smaller groups of users. The switch includes embedded Web-based management and HP TopTools for Hubs and Switches. Modules available for the HP ProCurve Switch 4000M are:

• HP Switch 10/100Base-T module provides (8) autosensing 10/100 Ethernet UTP ports

• HP Switch Gigabit-SX module provides (1) 1000Mbps multi-mode fiber optic port

• HP Switch Gigabit-LX module provides (1) 1000Mbps multi-mode or single-mode fiber optic

port. Fully adheres to the IEEE 802.3z specification.

• HP Switch 100/1000Base-T module provides (1) autosensing 100/1000Mbps Category 5 UTP

connection at up to 100m. Implements autosensing Auto MDI/MDI-X, allowing either straight-through or crossover cabling to be used for interconnections between switches or switch-to-server.

• HP Switch 100Base-FL module provides (4) 100Mbps multi-mode fiber optic ports

For as long as you own the product.

Mode conditioning cable (not included) may be needed with multi-mode fiber cable per IEEE 802.3z specs.

HP ProCurve Switch 4000M / 8000M / 2424M / 1600M Reviewer’s Guide

• HP Switch 10Base-FL module provides (4) 10Mbps multi-mode fiber optic ports

HP ProCurve Switch 8000M

A modular 10 slot mini-chassis. Essentially the HP ProCurve Switch 4000M without any ports preinstalled.

HP ProCurve Switch 2424M

The HP ProCurve Switch 2424M is a stackable switch that provides twenty-four 10/100 Base-T autosensing ports and one open slot. The HP ProCurve Switch 2424M is ideal for low cost managed 10/100 desktop switching for users that desire a stackable solution. The Stacking Module provides a convenient high-speed stacking connection between switches and has two transceiver slots left over to provide a high-speed standardized Gigabit uplink connection to the backbone or an aggregator switch.

Modules available for the HP ProCurve Switch 2424M slot are:

• Any of the modules listed under the HP ProCurve Switch 4000M above.

• HP ProCurve Switch 2424M Gigabit Stacking Module provides two Gigabit ports that are

transceiver-based. Transceivers available are:

• HP ProCurve Gigabit-SX Transceiver

• HP ProCurve Gigabit-LX Transceiver

• HP ProCurve Gigabit-Stacking Kit (allows a low cost Gigabit stacking connection

between two HP ProCurve Switch 2424Ms). Includes two transceivers and a .5m cable.

Note that the Gigabit Stacking Module only works in the HP ProCurve Switch 2424M. It cannot be used in the HP ProCurve Switches 8000M / 4000M / 1600M.

HP ProCurve Switch 1600M

A fixed port switch with sixteen fixed 10/100Mbps autosensing ports and one expansion slot, primarily for Gigabit connectivity, but will accept any of the modules listed with the HP ProCurve Switch 4000M above. Ideal for server farm connectivity.

1.3.2 Other Switches Available From HP

Below is a complete list of switches available from HP.

HP ProCurve Routing Switch 9308M

A feature-rich, modular, 8 slot chassis-based routing switch delivering 100 million pps performance with up to 64 Gigabit Ethernet ports and up to 184 10/100 Mbps autosensing ports. Routes IP, IPX and AppleTalk. This product is ideal for large networks and provides high performance as a collapsed backbone.

See the HP ProCurve Routing Switch 9304M/9308M/6308M-SX/6208M-SX Reviewer’s Guide details.

HP ProCurve Routing Switch 9304M

A feature-rich, modular, 4 slot chassis-based routing switch delivering 50 million pps performance with up to 32 Gigabit Ethernet port and up to 88 10/100 autosensing per-port. This product is ideal for medium-to-large networks and provides high performance in collapsed backbones, data centers, and server farms.

See the HP ProCurve Routing Switch 9304M/9308M/6308M-SX/6208M-SX Reviewer’s Guide details.

for more

HP ProCurve Routing Switch 6308M-SX

A feature-rich, 8 port wire-speed Gigabit-SX routing switch delivering 12 million pps performance. This product is ideal as a backbone switch for small-to-medium networks, or as a remote building aggregrator switch connected to the larger site switch.

HP ProCurve Switch 4000M / 8000M / 2424M / 1600M Reviewer’s Guide

See the HP ProCurve Routing Switch 9304M/9308M/6308M-SX/6208M-SX Reviewer’s Guide for more details.

HP ProCurve Routing Switch 6208M-SX

A feature-rich, 8 port wire-speed Gigabit-SX Layer 2/4 switch delivering 12 million pps performance. This product is ideal as a backbone switch for small-to-medium networks, or as a remote building aggregrator switch connected to the larger site switch where full Layer 3 routing is not wanted or needed.

See the HP ProCurve Routing Switch 9304M/9308M/6308M-SX/6208M-SX Reviewer’s Guide details.

HP ProCurve Switch 2224

Fixed configuration unmanaged desktop switch with (24) autosensing 10/100 Mbps ports, one of the UTP ports can be used as a 100Base-FX port with the addition of an optional transceiver.

HP ProCurve Switch 212M

Fixed configuration top-of-stack switch with (12) 10Mbps Ethernet ports and two 100Base-T ports (one fixed TX and one transceiver-based port)

HP ProCurve Switch 224M

Fixed configuration desktop switch with (24) 10Mbps Ethernet ports and two 100Base-T ports (one fixed TX and one transceiver-based port)

HP AdvanceStack Switch 2000

A flexible six slot high speed backplane switch for connectivity into legacy LAN environments. Modules currently available include:

• Two port 100Base-T module (transceiver-based),

• Two port 100VG module (transceiver-based),

• Four port 10Base-T module,

• Four port 10Base-FL module

• One port DAS FDDI module, and

for more

See the HP AdvanceStack Switch 2000/800T Reviewer’s Guide for more details.

HP ProCurve Switch 4000M / 8000M / 2424M / 1600M Reviewer’s Guide

1.4 HP Switch Positioning

HP identifies three different classifications for switches: node/desktop, top-of-stack (both classified as wiring closet switches) and backbone switches. These areas are loosely defined by the number of address table entries a switch supports, the speed at which a switch operates, the flexibility/modularity provided by a switch, and the number of ports supported by a switch. There are also some specialty areas, such as being able to handle centralized server farms.

Desktop switches are intended for connecting each end node in a workgroup directly to its own switch port, usually at 10Mbps, with maybe one or two higher-speed ports for fast server connectivity. Top-ofstack switches have larger address tables and higher throughput speeds. They are designed to interconnect smaller workgroup switches or shared hubs. Backbone switches are intended to be placed centrally in a network. Consequently, they have high port counts with flexible port configurations, ways of dealing with broadcast and multicast traffic, and the ability to provide Layer 3 functionality.

HP ProCurve LAN Solution Family

Gigabit Routing

Switches

fixed, L3, managed

Gigabit Switches

fixed, L2, managed

10/100/Gigabit

Routing Switches

flexible chassis configuration

10/100Mbps Switches

with up to 2 Gigabit links

10/100Mbps Switches

flexible chassis configuration

10/100Mbps

Increasing Performance

Switch

10Mbps

Hub

10/100Mbps Hubs

managed or unmanaged

10Mbps Hubs

managed or unmanaged

10/100Mbps Switches

entry level, unmanaged

10Mbps Switches

with 2 100 Mbps uplinks

Switches covered in this guide.

Wiring Closet BackboneOffice

1.4.1 Positioning for the HP ProCurve Switch 4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M

The HP ProCurve Switches 4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M are very flexible wiring closet switches. The universal slot architecture delivers high port density and media flexibility in a variety of form factors. The different switches’ form factors are discussed in Section 1.3.1. These switches all have the same feature set. Features such as Switch Meshing and Port Trunking provide high availability and high bandwidth capabilities for mission-critical applications. QoS Setting and in-switch tagging allows them to be 802.1q edge devices to provide end-to-end packet priority setting without requiring the explicit involvement of end nodes. HP Proactive Networking makes these switches the easiest way to build and maintain a high-speed network wiring closet.

HP ProCurve Switch 4000M / 8000M / 2424M / 1600M Reviewer’s Guide

1.4.2 Switch 8000M / 4000M / 2424M / 1600M Comparison

All four switches run the same software and have the same features. Differences between the switches are largely physical and shown in the following chart.

Feature Switch 8000M Switch 1600M Switch 4000M Switch 2424M Programmable HP ASICs

Automatic Broadcast Control Switch Meshing Port Trunking

Fast EtherChannel

HP Port Trunking

Protocol Filtering

802.3x Flow Control

802.1p Priority QoS Settings, In-switch tagging IGMP (Version 2) VLANs (802.1Q tagged and

untagged) Broadcast Throttling Port Security Web-server based configuration TopTools for Hubs & Switches Number of addresses 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 Installed ports (10/100Mbps) 0 16 40 24 Open slots 10 1 5 1 Backplane Packets Per Second

           

 



                    

30 30 30 30

               

4.67 million 3.87 million5 4.67 million 3.926 million

EtherChannel® is a registered trademark of Cisco Systems, Inc.

64 byte packets

This figure indicates full media speed, full duplex on all ports. Gigabit card installed in 1600M.

Stacking Module with 2 Gigabit ports used in the 2424M.

HP ProCurve Switch 4000M / 8000M / 2424M / 1600M Reviewer’s Guide

2. Evaluation Features and Benefits

2.1 Feature Set Summary

The HP ProCurve Switch 8000M and the HP ProCurve Switch 1600M are store-and-forward switches that feature:

• An innovative backplane design that results in very low latencies of 3.5-12 microseconds

(100Mbps streams). Speeds are: 4000M/8000M: 3.8 gigabit/sec, 1600M: 3.5 Gbps, 2424M: 3.2 Gbps

• LAN Aggregation - Switch Meshing (load balancing protocol) and multiple port trunking

allowing load-balancing meshed, scaleable, and redundant bandwidth on connections between switches. Create a virtual backplane between switches.

• Link Aggregation - Support for Cisco’s Fast EtherChannel

Protocol (PAgP) and manually configured HP Trunks

• Up to thirty 802.1Q compliant VLANs for segmentation of local LANs

• QoS Settings / In-switch tagging – set priority of packets through the switch as well as setting

the priority tag bits in the 802.1Q tag based on IP address, IP-ToS or Diff-Serv bits, protocol, VLAN membership or incoming 802.1Q priority setting. This In-switch tagging (actual modification of the priority bits) allows network QoS settings

including the Port Aggregation

without

end node involvement.

• Automatic Broadcast Control (ABC) that intelligently controls broadcasts to enable larger

switched topologies without the use of VLANs and routers. On the other hand, ABC is fully compatible with VLAN and router environments.

• Automatic Gateway Configuration of DHCP packets to set the default gateway of a node to its

own IP address if the HP ProCurve Switch 4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M is installed in place of a pre-existing router.

• IGMP support for control of multicast packets

• Source port and layer 3 protocol filtering for control of traffic and implementation of security

policies between ports

• Port Security – ability to deny access to all except a configured MAC address, or first seen

address on a port-by-port basis.

• Lifetime

warranty (best in the industry)

• Free end-user telephone support available worldwide

• Extensive net management capabilities including:

 Web-based management for anytime, anywhere configuration access  Find/fix/inform capability which finds common network problems, fixes them if possible,

and informs the net manager of the situation

 Top Tools for Switches, which provides device and traffic management, traffic optimization,

and traffic control tools

 SNMP/MIB II/RMON support on all ports for monitoring and control  HP’s Extended RMON support on all ports allowing the monitoring of traffic flows in the

network

 Ability to configure a network monitoring port for use with external probes or analyzers

For as long as you own the product.

HP ProCurve Switch 4000M / 8000M / 2424M / 1600M Reviewer’s Guide

• Spanning Tree Protocol (802.1D) support, including “fast” mode to allow support of IPX client

environments (see the application note “HP Switches - Controlling Network Traffic” at

http://www.hp.com/rnd/products/solutions/techlib/techlib.htm

• Year 2000 compliant

for more details).

2.2 Architecture

2.2.1 Store-and-Forward

There are two techniques by which switches move packets from the source to destination ports, 1) store-and-forward or, 2) cut-through. In store-and-forward, the entire packet is received and stored in memory by the switch before any decision is made as to the destination port for that packet. For cutthrough, the switch makes the destination decision and forwards the packet as soon as it has the destination and source address of the packet. Since the destination address is contained at the beginning of the packet, it is possible to have the packet being sent out the destination port before it is entirely received on the incoming port. No CRC checking is done on the packet with cut-through switching.

The HP ProCurve Switches 4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M use a variation of the store-and-forward method of packet forwarding. The benefits of the store-and-forward approach over cut-through are:

• Allows multi-speed switching: Store-and-forward is the only way a switch can deal with

differing speeds on its various ports.

• Filters out bad packets: Packets that are too short (as well as collision fragments), too long, or

have bad checksums are not forwarded, preventing the proliferation of bad packets.

• Congestion management: All switches deal with packet congestion by using store-and-forward

methods.

• Priority Queuing: QoS priority queues work through a store-and-forward mechanism.

The usual concern with the store-and-forward method compared to cut-through is higher packet latencies through the switch. The HP ProCurve Switches 4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M have a novel backplane design that keeps packet latencies among the lowest in the industry for store-and-forward switches. This is discussed in more detail in the Backplane Design section below.

2.2.2 Backplane Design

The HP ProCurve Switches 4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M has backplanes controlled by an HP-designed programmable ASIC. Backplane speeds for the various switches are: 4000M/8000M: 3.8 gigabit/sec, 1600M: 3.5 Gbps, 2424M:

3.2 Gbps. The switches support 10,000 MAC addresses. Unlike many other switches on the market, data is stored on the incoming port module and only travels across the backplane once on its way to the outgoing port module. At a measured

latency of only 3.5-12 µsec (LIFO, 100Mbps speed), the HP ProCurve

Switches 4000M/8000M/2424M/1600M have low latency for a store-and-forward design. Latency is the same for both inter and intra-module destinations.

3.8 Gbit switch bus

Slot

Module

ASIC

Controller

Slot

Module

Slot

Module

For broadcast and multicast packets, LIFO latency is still at 4-21 µsec broadcast and multicast latency port-to-port in these switches is ±1.2 µsec, which is very low. For

for all ports

, and the variance in

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