Nortel BayStack 425-48T, BayStack 425-24T Brochure

Small and medium businesses are faced with different challenges than larger enterprises.
When it comes to networking equipment, they are looking for:

• Minimal time for set-up

• Plug-and-play capability

• Opportunities to improve employee productivity

• Potential for gaining competitive advantage

• Ability to save money

Nortel Networks BayStack* 425 Switches have been designed to address the needs of small
and medium customers. The switches help save money by allowing devices to be connected
at either 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps without needing newer switches to accommodate different
speeds. In addition, the switches are scalable and provide small and medium businesses (SMBs)
with the comfort of knowing that their investment is protected as their company grows. Easy
Web-based management features and plug-and-play stacking ports will save customers signifi­cant time in setting up the switches. Also, the switches’ ease-of-use features require minimal
technical expertise to configure them. For more details on Nortel Networks SMB solutions,
please visit www.nortelnetworks.com/smb.

The BayStack 425 Switches are stackable 10/100 Mbps Layer 2 Ethernet switches featuring
easy configuration and stackability, flexible choices for high-speed uplinks, and Web-based
management from a Web browser. The BayStack 425 Switches have been architected to be
Layer 3 and DiffServ capable via a software upgrade in the future.

Product Brief

Nortel Networks

BayStack 425 Switches

Highlights

• Cost-effective stackable switching for
small and medium enterprise customers

• Up to 384 10/100 Mbps ports for desktop
switching in an 8-rack unit high design

• Plug-and-play stacking with built-in
stacking ports

• Easy to use

• Flexible combo uplink ports for wiring

closet or backbone connections

• Resilient uplink connectivity for
minimal network downtime

• Easy Web-based management

• 1U high compact design with low power

consumption

• Flexible stacking across BayStack 425 and
420 Switches—a stack is managed as a
single entity with a single IP address

stackable
switching

Combining high port density with low per-port pricing for a cost-effective switching solution,
the BayStack 425 Switches are designed for small to medium-sized businesses and branch
offices that consider price to be a predominant decision factor when acquiring advanced
networking functionality such as:

• High-density, cost-effective stackable switching

• Flexible combo uplink port options

• Easy set-up

The BayStack 425 Switches are available in two models—the BayStack 425-24T Switch
(Figure 1) and the BayStack 425-48T Switch (Figure 2).

The BayStack 425-24T Switch has 24 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX autosensing ports, 2 flexible
combo uplink ports, and built-in stacking ports. It can be used standalone or in a stack of up
to 8 switches that can be easily managed as a single unit, to get up to 192 10/100 Mbps ports.
The BayStack 425-48T can also be used standalone or in a stack of up to 8 switches for up to
384 10/100 Mbps ports based on a future software release. Advanced features such as
Distributed Multi-Link Trunking, IGMP Snooping, VLAN Trunking, and flexible manage­ment tools help efficiently manage the network traffic. BayStack 425 Switches are ideal stack­able switching solutions for small and medium businesses needing performance and scalability
at cost-effective prices (Figure 3).

Features and benefits

Full autosensing on every port

Every UTP port on the BayStack 425 Switches is equipped with autosensing technology to
automatically detect and support the speed and mode of a connected device. The ports deter­mine whether a connected device is operating at 10 Mbps or 100 Mbps, and automatically
adjust to the optimal speed. Each of the switched ports can also automatically detect and
support full-duplex connections to servers, power-user end stations or other switches, as well
as half-duplex connections to legacy NICs or hubs.

High-density stacking architecture

The plug-and-play cascade stacking architec­ture permits connection of up to 8 BayStack
425 Switches with stack cables (Figure 4) into
a single manageable unit of up to 192 10/100
Mbps ports. With the BayStack 425-48T
Switch, up to 384 10/100 Mbps ports can be
achieved in a stack of eight units. Two built-in
Gigabit stacking ports in the rear of the switch
provide easy connections to other members
of the stack; there is no need to purchase a
cascade module or use an uplink port for
stacking. This scalable architecture protects
the network investment, as business needs
change or grow, enabling a cost-effective “buy
as you grow” strategy. When a BayStack 425­24T Switch is being stacked, one of the combo
uplink ports (port 26) is turned off. When the
stacking feature becomes available for BayStack
425-48T, combo port 50 will be turned off.
Note that the BayStack 425-48T Switch cannot
be stacked with itself or with BayStack 425-24T
and BayStack 420-24T Switches. BayStack
425-48T Switch is standalone only; it will be

Figure 1. The BayStack 425-24T switch

Figure 2. The BayStack 425-48T switch

Figure 3. Small/medium
business solution

Distributed
Multi-Link Trunking

Multi-Link
Trunking

Floor 3

Floor 2

Network
Center

BayStack 425 Switches

BayStack 425 Switches

Passport 1612G Switch

10/100 Mbps

connections

Servers

2

stackable with itself and BayStack 425-24T Switches in a future software release. Currently,
BayStack 425-24T and BayStack 420-24T Switches can be stacked in any combination up to a
maximum of eight units.

Flexible high-speed uplink ports

The BayStack 425 Switches offer two built-in combo uplink ports (ports 25 and 26 of BayStack
425-24T and ports 49 and 50 of the BayStack 425-48T) in the front of the unit that provide
high-speed connection to backbone switches or servers. Each combo port consists of one SFP
(SmallForm Factor Pluggable) GBIC (Gigabit Interface Converter) uplink port and one
10/100/1000BASE-T port (Figure 5). Each combo port autosenses between the SFP and the
10/100/1000BASE-T port. When the stacking ports are being used for stacking on the
BayStack 425-24T Switch, combo port 26 is automatically turned off. When the stacking
feature becomes available for BayStack 425-48T, combo port 50 will be automatically turned
off. In a stack of eight BayStack 425 Switches, up to 8 uplink ports can be used.

Wire-speed throughput

A 16 Gigabit per second (Gbps) switching fabric and ASICS support full 802.1d-compliant
MAC Layer frame forwarding and filtering across all ports at wire-speed performance. The
BayStack 425-24T Switch has a peak forwarding rate of 6.6 million packets per second and the
BayStack 425-48T Switch has a peak forwarding rate of 10.1 million packets per second.

BoSS (BayStack operating system Switching Software)

BoSS for BayStack 425 Switches is a single software image that is used for BayStack 425-24T,
BayStack 420-24T, and BayStack 425-48T switches. Future versions provide new features
and will be available for free for the lifetime of the
switches. Other BayStack switches support a different
version of BoSS.

BoSS version 3.1 is currently available from
www.nortelnetworks.com/support and adds
support for the following features:

• Support for BayStack 425-48T

• 255 VLANs support (BayStack 425 only)

• Custom Auto Negotiation Advertisements (CANA)

Flexible stacking across BayStack 425 and 420 Switches

The BayStack 425-24T Switch can be stacked with the BayStack 420-24T Switch. A maximum
of eight switches can be stacked together in any combination. BayStack 425-48T Switch will be
able to stack with BayStack 425-24T Switch in a future software release.

Simplified network operations

BoSS simplifies network operations by reducing the number of steps required for switch soft­ware updates. With BoSS, only a single image needs to be downloaded from Nortel Networks
Web site for all BayStack 425 and 420 Switches. Loading the image to different switches is also
considerably simplified. The image is loaded only to the base unit of the stack, which automati­cally loads it to other switches in the stack.

Multi-Link Trunking

Multi-Link Trunking (MLT) enables grouping of links between a BayStack 425 Switch and
another switch or a server to provide greater bandwidth with active redundant links. Nortel
Networks unique Distributed Multi-Link Trunking (DMLT) feature allows trunked ports to
span multiple units of the stack for redundant connectivity to mission-critical servers and the
network center (Figure 4). The BayStack 425 Switches support up to 6 MLTs per switch or
stack with up to 4 ports per MLT.

3

Figure 4. The plug-and-play
architecture allows easy expansion,
and management as a single unit

Combo
Port 26

Combo
Port 25

Figure 5. Each combo port auto­senses between 1 SFP uplink port
and 1 10/100/1000BASE-T port