Planet NOVASwitch FNSW-8086F, NOVASwitch FNSW-8088F User Manual

FNSW-8086 / 8088F User's Guide i

NOVASwitch Series

FNSW-8086F
FNSW-8088F

Fast Ethernet Fiber-optic Switch

NOVASwitch Seriesii

Trademarks

Copyright  PLANET Technology Corp. 1998.
PLANET is a registered trademark of PLANET

Technology Corp. The information in this manual is
subject to change without notice. All other trademarks
belong to their respective owners.

Contents subject to revision without prior notice.

FCC Warning

This equipment has been tested and found to comply
with the limits for a Class A digital device, pursuant to
Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to
provide reasonable protection against harmful
interference when the equipment is operated in a
commercial environment. This equipment generates,
uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not
installed and used in accordance with the Instruction
manual, may cause harmful interference to radio
communications. Operation of this equipment in a
residential area is likely to cause harmful interference in
which case the user will be required to correct the
interference at his own expense.

Reversion

This user's manual is for PLANET NOVASwitch Series
model --

FNSW-8086F / FNSW-8088F

Rev: 1.0 (Jun, 1998)

Part No: EMHFNSW88F

FNSW-8086 / 8088F User's Guide iii

Preface

This manual describes how to install and use the provided Fast
Ethernet Switch, which features eight ports 100BASE-FX Multi­mode fiber ports, six ports 100BASE-FX plus two ports
10/100BASE-TX switching is also available for this product
series.

To get the most out of this manual, it is you should have an
understanding of networking concepts such as bridging, IEEE

802.3 Ethernet and 100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet, and local area
networks (LANs).

For more information about these topics, please refer to the
Appendix.

Chapter Overview

Introduction

A general overview of switching benefits and the features of the
Switch this manual accompanied with.

Installation

Everything you need to know to install and configure the Switch
with your network.

Specifications

The Switch’ s specifications at a glance.

Connector Pinouts

See Appendix A for more information.

Introduction to LAN & Ethernet Technologies

See Appendix B for more information.

NOVASwitch Seriesiv

Table of Contents

I

NTRODUCTION

..........................................................................

III

I

NSTALLATION

...........................................................................

III

S

PECIFICATIONS

.........................................................................

III

C

ONNECTOR PINOUTS

................................................................

III

I

NTRODUCTION TO

LAN & E

THERNET TECHNOLOGIES

............

III

TABLE OF CONTENTS......................................................... IV

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ..............................................1

B

ENEFITS OF SWITCHING

............................................................1

E

IGHT PORTS FIBER-OPTIC ETHERNET SWITCH

..........................1

P

RODUCT FEATURES

...................................................................3

P

ACKING LIST

.............................................................................3

F

RONT PANEL

.............................................................................5

Ports .......................................................................................5

LED Indication.......................................................................6

Uplink Button .........................................................................9

Activity Status.......................................................................10

CHAPTER 2. INSTALLATION..............................................13

S

ELECTING A SITE FOR THE SWITCH

.........................................13

C

ONNECTING TO POWER

...........................................................14

C

ONNECTING TO YOUR NETWORK

...........................................14

CHAPTER 3. SPECIFICATIONS...........................................17

APPENDIX A - CONNECTOR PINOUTS............................19

FNSW-8086 / 8088F User's Guide v

APPENDIX B – INTRODUCTION TO LAN & ETHERNET

TECHNOLOGIES.......................................21

FNSW-8086 / 8088F User's Guide 1

Chapter 1. Introduction

Benefits of Switching

Ethernet switching technology has dramatically boosted the total
bandwidth of a network. It puts configuration flexibility and
bandwidth adaptability into the local workgroups where the
majority of work is generated.

It further eliminates congestion problems inherent to the
CSMA/CD protocol and improves predictable response time
under heavy network loads. Expensive routing equipment was
used in the past to reduce the congestion under heavy loads.

The new wave of object-oriented client and server applications
demands higher bandwidth and tighter integration of client work
stations with servers. The old shared-access Ethernet
technology provides neither enough bandwidth nor predictable
response time for this new wave of workgroup computing.

Fast Ethernet switching not only satisfies both technical and
business requirements, but also preserves the user’s existing

investment in the huge 10 BASE-T Ethernet installed base.
This compatibility ensures a path for users to add, change, and

migrate to Fast Ethernet as demands emerge. It also provides a
low cost and flexible bandwidth solution directly to local
workgroups where the majority of work is generated, reducing
the need for expensive network equipment.

Eight Ports Fiber-Optic Ethernet Switch

The eight-port Fast Ethernet switch offered here adds 100Mbps
switching performance in a cost-effective desktop package. The

NOVASwitch Series2

Switch has eight switching ports, each a 10/100 port capable of
autosensing both speed and half/full duplex mode.

With the demand for fiber, NOVASwitch's eight-port switch
provides another model, FNSW-8088F and FNSW-8086F in
addition to the original switch. The FNSW-8088F has eight multi­mode fiber ports. And for FNSW-8086F, it has 6-port 100BASE­FX ports and 2-port 10/100BASE-TX ports.

This switch makes it possible to join a 100Mbps Fast Ethernet
network to an existing 10Mbps Ethernet network (FNSW-8086F).
Its internal cache buffers the traffic from the higher bandwidth
100Mbps segment to the 10Mbps segment. If you later decide to
make both segments 100Mbps Fast Ethernet, the ports of the
switch will automatically sense the change and adjust to
100Mbps operation.

In addition to the benefits of integrating 10Mbps and 100Mbps
networks through TP ports, this switch is also useful for
segmenting networks that is bogged down with excess traffic as
a fiber-optic switching backbone. By splitting a network into
several segments and bridging them, you can cut the traffic load
on your network and reduce collisions on each segment,
especially if you can minimize intersegment traffic by placing
users and devices that normally talk to each other on the same
segment.

This switch fully complies with IEEE802.3u, 100BASE-TX,
100BASE-FX, IEEE802.3, and 10BASE-T standards. It features
"wire-speed” switching mechanisms as well as the ability to filter

local traffic, collisions, and error packets to maximize network
performance.

FNSW-8086 / 8088F User's Guide 3

This eight-port switch also facilitates an affordable and efficient
migration path to 100Mbps Fast Ethernet and can continue to
enhance your network's performance even if you upgrade your
existing network with standard Ethernet applications,
internetworking systems and client-side adapters to minimize
migration costs.

Product Features

This eight-port switch provides the following features:

♦ Eight 100BASE-FX switching ports (ST Interface)
♦ Full-duplex support on each port (default) for up to 2Km wiring
♦ Two-port 10/100BASE-TX, with six-port 100BASE-FX for

multiple choice of TP wiring

♦ Designed in compliance with 10BASE-T, IEEE802.3u,

100BASE-TX and 100BASE-FX standards.

♦ Comprehensive array of LED indicators that communicate the

status of the switch and troubleshooting information.

♦ Dynamic learning mode that automatically adjusts to the

network configuration.

♦ Runt and CRC filtering eliminates erroneous packets to optimize

network bandwidth.

♦ Full compatibility with standard Ethernet applications,

internetworking systems and client-side adapters to minimize
migration costs.

Packing List

NOVASwitch Series4

When you unpack the switch, you should find the items listed
below. Please inspect the contents, and report any apparent
damage or missing items immediately to your authorized reseller.

The Eight-port Switch
Users Manual
AC power cord
Rack Mount Ears with Screws

FNSW-8086 / 8088F User's Guide 5

Front Panel

The front panel of the switch has eight ports and an array of LED
indicators to provide you with instant feedback on the status of
the switch.

Figure 1: Front Panel of FNSW-8086F/ FNSW-8088F

Ports

Ports of this switch are capable of accepting 100BASE-FX with
ST interface connections. For FNSW-8086F, the two TP ports
support 10/100BASE-TX with Cat. 3, 4, 5 (100Mbps) twisted
pairs connection.

When connects to a 100BASE-TX network, the ports operate at
100Mbps in half-duplex mode and 200Mbps in full-duplex mode.
When connects to a 10BASE-T network, the ports operate at
10Mbps in half-duplex mode and 20Mbps in full-duplex mode.
With the fiber-optic port , when it connects to a 100BASE-FX
network, the ports operate at 100Mbps in half-duplex mode and
200Mbps in full-duplex mode (default).

The maximum range of a 100BASE-TX network connected to
the switch is 100 meters with Category 5 shielded twisted-pair
and unshielded twisted-pair (STP/UTP) cable. A 10BASE-T
network may range up to 100 meters with Category 3, 4, or 5
STP/UTP cable.

NOVASwitch Series6

As for the length of FX fiber link between a switch and Data
Terminal Equipment, FX is capable to span at most 2 Kilometers
using 62.5/125-micron fiber-optic cable.

The following table summarizes the port and cable specifications
for this switch.

Speed Connector

Port Speed
Half/Full
Duplex

Cable

100BASE-TX RJ-45 100/200

Mbps

100M, Category
5 STP/UTP

10BASE-T RJ-45 10/20 Mbps

100M, Category
3, 4, or 5
STP/UTP

100BASE-FX Straight-tip

(ST)

100/200
Mbps

62.5/125
micron fiber­optic cable

LED Indication

The array of LED indicators on the front panel conveys status
and configuration information to help you monitor and
troubleshoot the switch.

FNSW-8086 / 8088F User's Guide 7

Figure 2-1: LED & Button Indicators for FNSW-8086F

Œ

Port Status

TP Ports:

Each port has an array of six LEDs to show status information.
The LEDs are identified by a corresponding array of captions
located below the LEDs on the front panel.

LNK: The link indicator is the top-left LED. It is illuminated

whenever the port is connected to another working
networked device.

100: The top-right LED shines whenever the switch

detects that the corresponding port is connected to
a 100BASE-TX segment.

TX: The middle-left LED comes on when the port is

transmitting data.

NOVASwitch Series8

FDX: The full-duplex LED (the middle-right LED) is

illuminated when the port is operating in full-duplex
mode. When this LED is off, the port is operating in
half-duplex mode.

RX: The lower-left LED comes on when the port is

receiving data.

COL: The collision LED at the lower-right in the array

shines when the switch detects packet collisions on
the port.

•

Port Utilization

The Port Utilization LEDs indicates how much traffic each port is
handling, measured as a percentage of the port's bandwidth.
Column 1 corresponds to Port 1, Column 2 to Port 2, Column 3
to Port 3, etc. As traffic on a port increase, the LEDs for its
column will shine progressively from bottom to top.

FNSW-8086 / 8088F User's Guide 9

Ž

Uplink Status

This LED is illuminated when the uplink button is pressed down.

•

Power

This LED comes on when the switch is connected to a power
supply and turned on.

Uplink Button

The location of the uplink button is shown in Figure 2-1.

•

Uplink Button

Use the uplink port with the uplink button pressed down for
connecting to a regular port of a hub or another switch. If
connecting to an uplink port of a hub or another switch, any of
the switch’ s RJ-45 ports can be used.

Figure 2-2: LED Indicators of FNSW-8088F

NOVASwitch Series10

Œ

Port Status

Fiber-optic ports

Each port has an array of three LEDs to show status information.
The LEDs are identified by a corresponding array of captions
located beside the LEDs on the front panel.

LINK: The link indicator is the top LED. It is illuminated

whenever the port is connected to another working
networked device.

ACT: The middle LED comes on when the port is

transmitting or receiving data.

FDX: The full-duplex LED (the middle LED) is illuminated

when the port is operating in full-duplex mode.
When this LED is off, the port is operating in
half-duplex mode.

•

Port Utilization

The Port Utilization LEDs indicates how much traffic each port is
handling, measured as a percentage of the port's bandwidth.
Column 1 corresponds to Port 1, Column 2 to Port 2, Column 3
to Port 3, etc. As traffic on a port increase, the LEDs for its
column will shine progressively from bottom to top.

Ž

Power

This LED comes on when the switch is connected to a power
supply and turned on.

Activity Status

FNSW-8086 / 8088F User's Guide 11

•

TX : Transmit Data

RX : Receive Data

There is no uplink issue for fiber Switch; thus the uplink status does not
apply to FNSW-8088F.

NOVASwitch Series12

FNSW-8086 / 8088F User's Guide 13

Chapter 2. Installation

This chapter presents step-by-step installation instructions for
this eight-port Fiber-optic Fast Ethernet Switch.

Selecting a Site for the Switch

As with any electronic device, you should place the Switch where
it will not be subjected to extreme temperatures, humidity, or
electromagnetic interference. Specifically, the site you select
should meet the following requirements:

♦ The room temperature should be between 32 and 104

degrees Fahrenheit (0 to 40 degrees Celsius).

♦ The relative humidity should be less than 90 percent,

non-condensing.

♦ Surrounding electrical devices should not exceed the

electromagnetic field (RFC) standards for IEC 801-3,
Level 2 (3V/M) field strength.

♦ Make sure that the switch receives adequate ventilation.

Do not block the ventilation holes on the side of the switch
or the fan exhaust port on the rear of the switch.

♦ The power outlet should be within 1.8meter (6 feet) of the

switch.

Detailed specifications may be found on page 22 and 23.

NOVASwitch Series14

Connecting to Power

Connect the supplied AC power cord to the receptacle on the
back of the switch, and then plug the cord into a standard AC
outlet with a voltage range from 100 to 240 VAC.

Turn the Ethernet switch on by flipping the ON/OFF switch on
the rear of the unit to the I (ON) position. The O position is OFF.

Connecting to Your Network

10/100BASE-TX TP Ports

Connect cables to computers or network segments into the RJ­45 ports on the front of this switch. It does not matter which port
you select. All the non-fiber ports support 10BASE-T or
100BASE-TX with full or half duplex.

Use the uplink port with the uplink button pressed down for
connecting to a regular (i.e. non-uplink) port of a hub or another
switch. If connecting to an uplink port of a hub or another switch,
any of the eight ports can be used. To connect two regular RJ­45 ports between any two switches or hubs, you need a cross­wire cable.

The cable must be a Category 5 shielded twisted-pair or
unshielded twisted-pair (STP/UTP) cable for 100BASE-TX, or
Category 3, 4, or 5 STP/UTP cable for 10BASE-T.

100BASE-FX Fiber-optic ports

FNSW-8086 / 8088F User's Guide 15

Prepare a pair of fiber optic cables with ST type connectors at
both ends.

If you are making a connection to a server or workstation, be
sure that it has a properly installed 100BASE-FX network
interface card. Connect the Rx/Tx jacks on the target device to
the Tx/Rx jacks on the switch.

NOVASwitch Series16

FNSW-8086 / 8088F User's Guide 17

Chapter 3. Specifications

Applicable
Standards

10BASE-T, IEEE 802.3
100BASE-TX, IEEE 802.3u

Ports 10/100BASE-TX Auto-

sensing Ports

100Base-FX Ports

FNSW-8086F 2 6
FNSW-8088F 0 8
Speed

100BASE-TX: 200Mbps full-duplex

100Mbps half-duplex

10BASE-TX: 20Mbps full-duplex

10Mbps half-duplex

100BASE-FX: 200Mbps full-duplex

100Mbps half-duplex
Performance 148,800pps forwarding rate per port.
TP port

switch LED
Indicators

FX port LED
Indicators

Link, 10/100Mbps, Transmit, Receive, Duplex,

Collision, Port Utilization, Power

Link, Activity, Duplex, Port Utilization, Power

NOVASwitch Series18

Dimensions 440 X 205 X 45mm Rack-mount size
Weight 1.3kg (2.5lb)
Power Input 100 ~ 250 VAC, 47/63 Hz, 2A
Power

Consumption

12 W

Operating
Temperature

32 ~ 104 degrees F (0 ~ 40 degrees C)

Humidity 10 ~ 90%, non-condensing
Altitude 10,000 ft (3048 m)
Emissions FCC part 15 Class A, CISPR Class A,

VCCI-I CE Mark
Safety UL, CSA, TUV/GS

FNSW-8086 / 8088F User's Guide 19

Appendix A - Connector Pinouts

Figure 6: RJ-45 Connector and Cable Pins

The following table lists the pinout of the switch’ s
10/100BASE-T/TX ports.

Pin Regular Ports Uplink port

1 Input Receive Data + Output Transmit Data +
2 Input Receive Data - Output Transmit Data ­3 Output Transmit Data + Input Receive Data +
4 NC NC
5 NC NC
6 Output Transmit Data - Input Receive Data ­7 NC NC
8 NC NC

NOVASwitch Series20

FNSW-8086 / 8088F User's Guide 21

Appendix B – Introduction to LAN & Ethernet
Technologies

In the last ten years, as communication and business
applications become increasingly complex, computer network
has evolved as a very important part of the enterprise
infrastructure. Communication systems like Local Area Network
(LANs) have grown into a sophisticated, powerful, yet flexible
technology today. Among different types of Local Area Networks,
such as FDDI, ATM, Token Ring and Apple Talk, Ethernet
strikes a good balance between speed, price, ease of installation,
and supportability.

This primer helps to explain this most popular technology and its
associated products such as Ethernet hubs and switches.

LAN

In order to reduce the expense on computer hardware and
software and to easily share information, LAN technologies were
developed for people to share distributed computing resources.
LAN connects independent computers, file servers, printers, etc.
together within a confined geographic area, usually a single
building or a college campus. As LAN expands to link hundreds
and thousands of computers, various network protocols and
media have developed to meet the organization’s different

requirements. At times, multiple LANs that are geographically
dispersed may need to connect together and become so called
Wide Area Network (WAN).

NOVASwitch Series22

Ethernet Technologies

More than 80 percent of all Local Area networks are installed
with Ethernet. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers (IEEE) define the standard of Ethernet as IEEE 802.3.
The IEEE 802.3 provides rules for configuring Ethernet LANs,
specifies how elements should interact with one another, and
different types of media that can be used, as well as data rate
(10Mbps) of Ethernet. Ethernet supports just about all kinds of
popular network protocols. It is one of the most ideal networking
technologies today.

Fast Ethernet

For networks that need higher transmission speeds, IEEE has
also established the standard 802.3u, which raises the Ethernet
speed limit from 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps. This allows a network
device to transmit data through media such as category 5 UTP
(Unshielded Twisted Pair) cable or fiber optic cable at the rate of
100 Mbps instead of 10 Mbps. A number of other high-speed
LAN technologies are also available for high bandwidth and good
client server response time. However, Fast Ethernet offers the
best solution that provides smooth migration from 10Base-T
technology to 100 Base-TX. It requires only minimal changes
with existing cabling infrastructure. Fast Ethernet and its
successors have been said to be the most cost effective and
high-performance networking solutions of the future.

The Fast Ethernet contains three different cabling schemes.
100Base-TX for use with category 5 UPT/STP cable, 100Base­FX for use with Multi-mode fiber-optic cable, and 100Base-T4 for

FNSW-8086 / 8088F User's Guide 23

use with cable 3,4,or 5 UPT cable. Among three of them,
100Base-TX is most compatible to 10Base-TX. It allows users to
retain the existing 10Base-T cabling infrastructure, thus becomes
the most popular Fast Ethernet technology. Gigabit Ethernet is
still in the process of development. Other than supports higher
data transfer speed, this technology also promises for an easy
migration path.

Ethernet Products

Hub

Hub is a central connection point for wiring the network. It
connects two or more Ethernet segments of any media type.
When transmitting signal begins to deteriorate, which is caused
by the limitation of media length, hub simply takes the incoming
signal and repeats or amplifies it out to all ports connected. Hub,
also called repeater, only allows users to share Ethernet.
Individuals of a shared network can only get a percentage of the
available network bandwidth, therefore, a network of repeaters
also named “Shared Ethernet”.

Switches

The function of a switch is to connect separate networks together.
A Switch maps the Ethernet addresses of the nodes residing on
each network segment and then allows only the necessary traffic
to pass through. When a packet is received by the switch, the
switch determines the destination and source segments of a
packet and forward it to the right direction or drop it if the
destination and the source are originated from the same network.
Switches also prevent bad or misaligned packets from spreading

NOVASwitch Series24

into the rest of network, thus increasing efficiency of the network
transmission.

There are two basic architectures of LAN switches, cut-through
and store-and-forward. Cut-through switches only examine the
destination address before forwarding it on to its destination
segment. A store-and-forward switch accepts and analyzes the
entire packet before forwarding it to its destination. It allows the
switch to catch certain packet errors and keep them from
propagating through the network. Today there are a large
number of hybrid switches available that mix both cut through
and store-and-forward architectures.

Part No.: EMHFNSW88F CE ISO9002