Differences between Cisco switch cascade and stack

Cascade is connected to another hub through a port of the hub (for example, uplink), and stack is connected through the hub backplane.

Stack is only available between devices of your own manufacturer, and the device must have a stack function. Cascade a single twisted pair (or other media) requires a dedicated Stacking Module and cable, and these devices may need to be separately purchased. although cascade and stack can expand the number of ports, each hub or switch after cascade is logically multiple network-managed devices, the stacked hubs or switches are logically a network-managed device. The difference between stack and cascade: 1. Different requirements for devices. Cascade a pair of twisted wires between switches of any network equipment manufacturer or between switches and hubs. Stack is only available between devices of your own manufacturer, and the switch must have a stack function. 2. Different connection media requirements. Only one jumper is needed for Cascade, while stack requires dedicated stack modules and stacked cables. Of course, stack modules need to be separately ordered. 3. the maximum number of connections varies. In theory, there is no limit on the number of Cascaded switches. However, the number of switches that can be accommodated in the stack is clearly limited by each vendor. 4. Different management methods. The stacked switches are logically managed by a network management device and can be centrally configured and managed for all switches. Cascade switches are logically independent and must be configured and managed in sequence. 5 devices have different connection bandwidths. When multiple switches are cascaded, a cascade bottleneck occurs and a large forwarding delay occurs. For example, when four 100 Mbps switches are connected through jumper cascade, the connection bandwidth between them is also Mbps. When computers connected to different vswitches communicate with each other, they can only use this 10-Gigabit connection, which becomes the transmission bottleneck. Likewise, as the number of forwards increases, the network latency will also increase. When the four switches are connected together through stacks, the stacked cables can provide a board bandwidth higher than 1 Gbps to achieve high-speed connection between all switches. Although the link aggregation technology can be used to increase bandwidth between vswitches during cascade, this is at the cost of available ports. 6. The network coverage varies. Vswitches can be connected to multiple times to expand network coverage. For example, in a twisted pair network, the diameter of a vswitch is 100 m, and the diameter of the two vswitches is 300 m, the diameter of the three switches can reach 400 m. The stacked cable is usually only 0.5 ~ 1 m, which can only meet the needs of interconnection between vswitches and will not affect network coverage.