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Managed Switch Solutions
Take control of your local area network to streamline performance,
protect your data and reduce expensive downtime.
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All switches were not created equal
For anyone installing a local area network, the choice of
network fabric is obvious. Ethernet is the only show in town.
But when it comes installing the active devices that connect
the workstations, PCs and servers, the choices are less clearcut. The market boasts a plethora of devices each claiming to
be the simplest to install, fastest to run, easiest to manage and
the most secure to protect your network from costly downtime.
So how do you decide? Luckily SMC can help. SMC makes
it easy to understand the many different standards and
protocols to make the right decision for your network.
Combining the latest innovation with over 30 years’ design
experience, SMC gives you the best solutions on the market.
It’s simple – it’s Ethernet!
Since its development in the early 1980s by Digital Equipment
Corporation, Intel and Xerox, Ethernet has become the defacto physical layer standard for local area networking. In
that time, it has progressed from a 10 Mbps shared broadcast
system running over thick coaxial cable to 10 Gbps running
full duplex over fi bre optic cables. It is also supported on
unshielded twisted pair copper cabling, telephone cabling and
most recently, over wireless networks.
Ethernet has kept pace with the phenomenal improvements in
performance that we have seen in computers and information
technology. Each major iteration of the Ethernet standard
has increased the speed ten-fold and added more physical
media types such as fi bre and copper. Not only that, complete
compatibility has been maintained for computer and network
device connections ensuring no major equipment upgrades are
required to use the new higher speeds.
The last major Ethernet transition occurred in the late 1990s
when 100 Mbps Ethernet was deployed to the desktop to replace
the older 10 Mbps connections. In tandem, Gigabit Ethernet
was deployed in network backbones to aggregate the extra
100 Mbps feeds. Now another major transition is taking place.
The price of Gigabit Ethernet has fallen to the point where it is
being deployed to the desktop. The latest 10 Gigabit standard is
starting to appear in data centre backbones and is expected to
emerge in enterprise LANs over the next 2-3 years. Many PC and
laptop vendors are now shipping Gigabit Ethernet interfaces as
standard. As the latest IDC Ethernet port forecasts in Figure 1
indicate, the time is right to plan the next migration - and to
update switching infrastructures in readiness to exploit it.
Why managed switches?
The €30 Ethernet switch that you can now buy in any
computer hardware store is typically an unmanaged device.
Whilst it is fi ne for connecting a few PCs and laptops in a
home environment, it is not appropriate for use in a company
network with many PCs and servers. For these environments
a managed switch is essential to give the required levels of
control, network performance, security and reliability.
Modern managed switches can provide all these functions using
standard techniques such as VLANs, Port Trunking, security,
prioritization, fi ltering and SNMP network management.
VLANs
The great thing about Ethernet is that it is plug-and-play: just
plug the devices into a switch and they will fi nd each other and
start communicating. The downside of this is that Ethernet is
very chatty - it broadcasts a lot of messages to every device
connected to the switch. For a 4 port switch this is not a
problem. But start to connect 40, 400 or 4000 devices and
the amount of broadcast traffi c can begin to seriously slow
down and degrade the network.
To cut down on the amount of broadcast traffi c, you can create
Virtual LANs (VLANs) which operate as separate broadcast
domains. This means that members of a VLAN can only talk
directly to other members of the VLAN as shown in Figure 2.
If members of different VLANs need to communicate, then a
router is required. A router uses Layer 3 IP addresses to forward
packets to the correct destination. Most modern Ethernet
switches combine these two functions in the same device which
is often known as a switch/router or Layer 3 Switch.
Table 1: Types of Ethernet
Figure 1: Ethernet ports shipped forecast 2002-2008
Figure 2: Ethernet VLAN Switching
Type Speed
IEEE
Standard
Media
Types
PHY Type
Ethernet
(CSMA/CD)
10 Mbps 802.3
Coaxial
Thinwire
UTP
10Base-5
10Base-2
10Base-T
Fas t
Ethernet
100 Mbps 802.3u
UTP
Fibre
100Base-TX
100Base-FX
Gigabit
Ethernet
1000 Mbps 802.3ab/z
Fibre
UTP
1000Base-SX/LX
1000Base-CX
10 Gigabit
Ethernet
10000 Mbps 802.3ae
Fibre
SDH
10GBase-R
10GBase-W
Wireless
Ethernet
or Wi-Fi
11 Mbps
54 Mbps
802.11b
802.11g
802.11a
Radio
Frequency
DSSS
DSSS/OFDM
OFDM
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Network Security
Ethernet LANs are often deployed in environments that
permit unauthorized devices to be physically attached to
the LAN infrastructure, e.g. in areas of a building that are
accessible to the general public, or in a shared business park
or serviced offi ce building. Most importantly, these are areas
where wireless networks are attached to the wired LAN. In
such environments, it is important to restrict access of the
services offered by the LAN to those users and devices that
are permitted.
IEEE 802.1x port-based network access control provides a
means of authenticating and authorizing devices attached
to a LAN port. It can also prevent access to that port in
cases where the authentication and authorization process
fails. These ports can be: switches, servers, routers or even
wireless connections made between end-stations and access
points in IEEE 802.11 Wireless LANs.
Traffi c prioritization & fi ltering
A switch is often a single-point-of failure in a network since
it provides the connections between all the end-users and
server resources. If anything goes wrong with the switch, then
everything stops: email, fi le transfer and database access.
Luckily most modern networking hardware is built robustly
with redundant components and is unlikely to fail. What is
more likely to go wrong is for the device to be swamped with
traffi c and unable to operate normally.
Port Trunking
When large numbers of end-users need to access shared
resources such as fi le servers or database storage, the
connection to the server or storage device can become a
bottleneck. For instance, it only takes 10 PCs with 100 Mbps
connections performing transfers to and from a shared fi le
server to saturate a 1 Gbps connection to the server.
The solution is to use Port Trunking or Link Aggregation
Control Protocol (LACP) to bundle multiple connections and
use the combined bandwidth as if it was a single fat pipe. In
the example shown in Figure 3 below, up to 80 users can
perform simultaneous 100 Mbps transfers to 4 servers which
are dual linked with 2 x 1 Gbps connections.
Figure 3: Ethernet Trunking
The ease-of-use and plug-and-play qualities of Ethernet are
a result of the way new devices broadcast their addresses.
Bridges and switches can learn of their existence without
manual intervention. This can result in large amounts of traffi c
being broadcasted and proliferated around the network.
This traffi c can be controlled by:
• Using IEEE 802.1p to defi ne up to eight traffi c classes.
These classes can be labeled as urgent, business critical
and best-effort and the intervening switches and routers
set up to prioritize the traffi c accordingly.
• Using VLANs to keep broadcast traffi c within its own
broadcast domain.
• Filtering using Access Control Lists (ACLs) to restrict
traffi c based on broadcast type.
• Generating alerts and alarms using SNMP traps should
traffi c exceed certain thresholds.
Modern switches must provide these features if MIS
managers don’t want to hear those dreaded words: “The
network is down”.
SNMP Management Tool
The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is the
established industry standard for managing all types of network
devices. SNMP provides management of different network
devices using a comprehensive set of Management Information
Bases or MIBs. Using these MIBs, SNMP management tools can
be used to install, confi gure, monitor and manage all kinds of
network devices. SNMP provides support for traps and events.
Thresholds and conditions can be defi ned on which certain
actions are taken. These actions can range from generating
a message on an operator screen, turning a device icon a
different color on a network map or sending a text message or
phone call to the person responsible for managing the network.
EliteView Management Software
For SNMP management, SMC makes available its advanced
EliteView as a free download. EliteView is a Windows-based
workgroup network management software solution with a
streamlined, event-driven, modular architecture that makes
managing hundreds of network nodes simple. It provides
state-of-the-art utilities which allow you to:
• Generate a detailed hierarchical map of your entire
network confi guration.
• Maintain centralized boot services that provide network
addresses and information on system fi les to download.
• Monitor and log signifi cant events and statistics.
• Automatically respond to network problems with a variety
of actions.
• Quickly fetch or set MIB variables for network devices.
• Remotely manage or reconfi gure both SMC and third-
party network devices.
• Use the full MIB Compiler for including other network
devices.
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The SMCANT-DIFP11 is a low profi le high gain, wide dispersion directional
antenna that is perfect for extending the wireless operating distance for
indoor and outdoor applications.
TigerSwitch 10/100 SMC6724L3
The TigerSwitch™ 10/100 SMC6724L3, performs Layer2 switching
and IP-based Layer 3 routing in the same box. It includes 24 fi xed
auto-MDIX 10/100BASE-TX ports and 2 slots on the front panel that
accept optional 100BASE-FX or 1000BASE-X modules.
TigerSwitch 10/100 SMC6750L2
TigerSwitch 1000 SMC8612XL3
TigerSwitch 10/100/1000 SMC8648T
SMC’s managed switches solutions
SMC Networks has over 30 years experience in designing
and manufacturing network equipment. SMC’s managed
switch solutions provide a complete off-the-shelf
solution including chassis systems and fi xed and modular
confi gurations for 10/100 Mbps and 1/10 Gbps Ethernet over
copper or fi bre.
TigerSwitch™ managed switches
SMC Networks’ TigerSwitch™ range of managed switches
provides full support for:
• 10/100/1000 Mbps connections using copper or fi bre
interfaces.
• VLAN support.
• LACP Link Aggregation.
• Prioritization and Broadcast Filtering using ACLs.
• Various management options including full SNMP.
• Management using EliteView or any other SNMP-based
management system.
The TigerSwitch™ 10/100 SMC6750L2 is a standalone 48-port
10/100 with 2 Gigabit ports and optional Mini-GBICs. With a small
rackspace height of 1RU and a non-blocking switch fabric of 19.2Gbps,
it is ideal for workstation-to-server aggregation environments.
The TigerSwitch™ 1000 SMC8612XL3, performs Layer 2 switching
and IP-based Layer 3 routing in the same box. It includes 12 Gigabit
Fibre SFP 1000BASE-X ports, in association with 4 1000BASE-T
Gigabit copper ports.
The TigerSwitch™ 10/100/1000 SMC8648T is the fi rst in the market
to bring you 48-port gigabit switch in a small 1RU footprint. It
provides 48 auto-MDIX tri-speed ports and 4 associated mini-GBIC
uplink ports.
Figure 4: EliteView SNMP Management Tool
SMC also sells the following switches:
• SMC6824MPE: 24-Port 10/100, L2, Managed, Stackable Power over
Ethernet (POE) Switch
• SMC8724M: 24-Port 10/100/100, L2, Managed, Stackable Switch
with 10G uplink
• SMC8748M: 48-Port 10/100/100, L2, Managed, Stackable Switch
with 10G uplink
For more information about SMC‘s unique Managed Switching
solutions and to fi nd out how they can be used in your network,
contact your local SMC distributor/reseller or visit our website at
www.smc.com to locate your nearest SMC distributor/reseller.
©2005 SMC Networks.
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