Technical introduction and Practical Application of Route Switches

With the development of the routing industry, the application of the routing switch technology is also more extensive, and its role is more prominent. Here we will mainly introduce the technology and practical application of the routing switch. The routing switch technology is the "cornerstone" for building a network platform, also known as the network switch. It is also a type of hub, but it is quite different from common hub functions.

A general hub only serves to receive and send data, while the routing switch technology can intelligently analyze data packets and choose to send them out. For example, we have sent a batch of packets specially sent to someone. If it is in a network environment using a general hub, everyone can see this packet. In a network environment where the routing switch technology is used, the switch will analyze the packet to whom it is sent, and then package it for encryption. At this time, only the packet recipient can receive the packet.

In a broad sense, there are two types of switches: WAN switches and LAN switches. WAN switches are mainly used in the telecom field to provide basic communication platforms. Lan routing switch technology is used in local area networks to connect terminal devices, such as PCs and network printers. The transmission media and transmission speed can be divided into Ethernet switches, Fast Ethernet switches, Gigabit Ethernet switches, FDDI switches, ATM switches, and wildcard ring switches. Large-scale applications can be divided into enterprise-level switches, department-level switches, and working group switches. Generally, enterprise-level switches are rack-mounted, and department-level switches can have fewer rack-mounted slots) or fixed configurations, the working group-level switch is relatively simple with fixed configurations ). On the other hand, from the perspective of application scale, enterprise-level switches support large enterprise applications with more than 500 information points as enterprise-level switches, and department-level switches support Switches of medium enterprises with less than 300 information points, switches that support less than 100 information points are working group-level switches. Unless otherwise stated below, all the mentioned switches refer to LAN switches.

As we all know, switches work on the data link layer, the second layer of the OSI reference model. Their main functions include physical addressing, network topology, error verification, frame sequence, and traffic control. The physical address corresponds to the network address. The network topology includes the description of the data link layer and the physical connection mode of the device, for example, a star or bus topology, an upper-layer protocol warning is triggered when a transmission error occurs during error verification, and the data frame sequence is reorganized and transmitted except the sequence; throttling can delay data transmission so that the receiving device does not crash because it receives information that exceeds its processing capability at a certain time point. At present, the routing switch technology also has some new features, such as VLAN support, link aggregation support, and even some firewall features. This is the function of the layer-3 switch. The layer-3 routing switch technology adds the routing function when protocol-based VLAN division.

Switch Technology Status Quo and trend analysis

Layer-3 switching is the key to adopting Intranet. It combines the advantages of the routing switch technology and the layer-3 router into a flexible solution to provide line rate performance at all levels. This integrated structure also introduces policy management attributes, which not only associate Layer 2 with Layer 3, but also provides traffic prioritization, security, and a variety of other flexible functions, such as link aggregation, dynamic deployment of VLAN and Intranet. Layer-3 switches are divided into three parts: interface layer, switch layer, and route layer.

The interface layer includes all important LAN interfaces: 10/100 M Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, FDDI, and ATM. The switching layer integrates multiple LAN interfaces with policy management. It also provides link aggregation, VLAN, and Tagging mechanisms. The routing layer provides the main LAN routing protocols: IP, IPX, and AppleTalk. Through policy management, the routing layer provides the traditional routing or pass-through layer-3 forwarding technology. Policy management and administrative management enable the network administrator to adjust the network according to the specific needs of the enterprise.

Compared with Layer 3, the level 2 Adoption determines the so-called network control classification. A pure Layer 2 solution is the cheapest solution, however, it provides the least control over subnet division and broadcast restrictions. The layer-3 routing switch technology can provide dynamic integration support for all levels of classification. Traditional general-purpose routers and external switches can also achieve this goal. However, compared with this solution, layer-3 switches require less configuration, less space, and less wiring, cheaper and more reliable performance.

Web switch

The development of the Internet is changing rapidly. To cope with increasing loads and new application requirements, Web switches emerged as the times require data center devices, including Internet servers, firewalls, high-speed buffer servers, and gateways) provides management, routing, and load balancing transmission. Unlike traditional network devices, traditional network devices focus on high-speed exchange of individual frames and data packets, while Web switches focus on tracking and processing Web sessions. In addition to the connection and packet routing provided by the traditional second/third-layer switches, the Web switch can also provide a complete policy lacking in the traditional LAN routing switch technology, integrates local and global Server Load balancer, access control, service quality assurance (QoS), bandwidth management, and other management capabilities. At present, the Web switch has evolved from a purely transport layer Layer-4 device to a layer-7 switch intelligence. Using content or user classification for Web Request redirection is a function of the Web server. However, the development of Internet transmission and commerce far exceeds the improvement of computer processing capabilities. Unloading content classification to a Web switch balances the infrastructure of the entire website. The following table uses Alteon products as an example to describe Web switch products.

Switch Application Analysis

1. large enterprises with more than 500 nodes): large enterprises have cross-region, cross-industry, multi-layer, and all-round features, wide coverage of business content, large volume of network data transmission, and strong data exchange capabilities, first, we need to establish a network platform to meet enterprises' internal communication needs. In addition, the network system is required to operate stably and reliably without interruption. Choose a product based on high performance, manageability, high reliability, applicability, and performance-to-price ratio.

2. Post and Telecommunications Industry: due to its operating characteristics and the purpose of serving the public, the telecom system has a wide geographical distribution range, providing many services and constantly updating services. Network equipment requirements are more stringent. Generally, network equipment is selected as Wan products.

3. railway System: railway systems generally have high requirements for Wan communication, and the number of nodes in each site is not very large, therefore, when you select a department-level switch or a working group-level route switch for the construction of LAN devices for each site.

4. Banking: this industry sub-branch has a wide distribution range, frequent business activities, many changes in business types, and fast business growth. Therefore, it has high requirements on stability and response time. Because the industry is highly sensitive to data, link redundancy is required. The transmission link should have a backup function. Once the Main Line fails, the backup line can be replaced immediately. Therefore, it is required that network devices have strong processing capabilities and fault tolerance capabilities, and that scalability, availability, and reliability be considered.

5. Securities Industry: this industry is characterized by rapid, timely response, and stable, secure, reliable, and uninterrupted operation. Equipment Selection requires the backplane to be fast, with good redundancy performance, manageable and stackable, and fully considering the openness, scalability, availability and reliability of the equipment.

6. Education: this industry does not have a high requirement on data. It involves multimedia teaching, video-on-demand, and other major applications. high bandwidth, high availability, and high scalability should be taken into account when selecting equipment.

7. small and medium enterprises: for small and medium enterprises with fewer than 500 network nodes, the internal data traffic of the enterprise is not large and the real-time response is not high when creating an enterprise Intranet, at the same time, considering the sustainable development of enterprises, attention should be paid to the universality, reliability, manageability, scalability and performance-price ratio of network equipment.

In short, the network has changed, but users want the network to always work and always be transparent. To meet this requirement, flexible, fast, and secure control is required. Internet and Intranet have made enterprises focus on the most important thing-information, rather than infrastructure. Using a policy to control the network is a new network technology example. The control mode makes the network transparent and maintains the flexibility of configuring the Intranet. Exchange Technology can meet users' business needs today and in the future. Flexible networking, line rate performance, and full scalability can make the device configuration effective for a long time.