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Integrated Cisco
IOS Features
for Bandwidth
Optimization
• Bandwidth aggregation of up to 16 Gbps through Gigabit EtherChannel technology and up
to 1.6 Gbps through Fast EtherChannel technology enhances fault tolerance and offers
higher speed aggregated bandwidth between switches, to routers and individual servers.
• Per-port broadcast, multicast, and unicast storm control prevents faulty end stations
from degrading overall systems performance.
• WCCP allows the interaction with a web cache for the purpose of redirecting
content requests to a cache and performing basic load balancing across multiple
caches—requires EMI.
• IEEE 802.1D Spanning-Tree Protocol support for redundant backbone connections and
loop-free networks simplifies network configuration and improves fault tolerance.
• PVST+ allows for Layer 2 load sharing on redundant links to efficiently utilize the extra
capacity inherent in a redundant design.
• IEEE 802.1s Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) allows a spanning tree instance per
VLAN enabling Layer 2 load sharing on redundant links.
• Equal cost routing for Layer 3 load balancing and redundancy
• Local Proxy ARP works in conjunction with private VLAN edge to minimize broadcasts
and maximize available bandwidth.
• VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP) pruning limits bandwidth consumption on VTP trunks by
flooding broadcast traffic only on trunk links required to reach the destination devices.
• IGMP snooping provides for fast client joins and leaves of multicast streams and limits
bandwidth-intensive video traffic to only the requestors.
• Multicast VLAN Registration (MVR) continuously sends multicast streams in a multicast VLAN
while isolating the streams from subscriber VLANs for bandwidth and security reasons.
Ultra-Flexible and
Scalable Stacking
The Cisco GigaStack GBIC delivers a hardware-based, independent stacking bus with up to 2
Gbps forwarding rate in a point-to-point configuration, or 1-Gbps forwarding bandwidth when
daisy chained with up to nine switches.
Ease of Use
and Ease of
Deployment
• Auto-configuration eases deployment of switches in the network by automatically
configuring multiple switches across a network via a boot server.
• Automatic QoS (Auto QoS) greatly simplifies the configuration of QoS in VoIP networks by
issuing interface and global switch commands that allow the detection of Cisco IP phones,
the classification of traffic, and egress queue configuration.
• Auto-sensing on each non-GBIC port detects the speed of the attached device and
automatically configures the port for 10-, 100-, or 1000-Mbps operation, easing the
deployment of the switch in mixed 10, 100, and 1000BASE-T environments.
• Auto-negotiating on all ports automatically selects half- or full-duplex transmission mode to
optimize bandwidth.
• Dynamic Trunking Protocol (DTP) enables dynamic trunk configuration across all ports in the
switch.
• Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP) automates the creation of Cisco Fast EtherChannel or
Gigabit EtherChannel groups, enabling linking to another switch, router, or server.
• Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) allows the creation of Ethernet channeling with
devices that conform to IEEE 802.3ad. This is similar to Cisco’s EtherChannel and PAgP.
• DHCP relay allows a broadcast DHCP request to be forwarded to the network DHCP server.
• IEEE 802.3z-compliant 1000BASE-SX, 1000BASE-LX/LH, 1000BASE-ZX, and 1000BASE-T
physical interface support through a field-replaceable GBIC module provides customers
unprecedented flexibility in switch deployment.
• The default configuration stored in Flash ensures that the switch can be quickly connected to
the network and can pass traffic with minimal user intervention.
Table 1 Product Features and Benefits (Continued)
Feature Benefit
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