How to identify Cisco switch models

Cisco System Inc. With its IOS (Internet Operating System), Cisco is an absolute leader in the multi-protocol router market. Currently, nearly 80% of routers on the Internet come from Cisco. In fact, Cisco also has a full range of network devices, including hubs, switches, access servers, hardware and software firewalls, and network management software. Cisco pays great attention to the tracking of New Technologies. Through a series of cooperation and mergers, Cisco has successfully intervened in emerging markets such as broadband access and wireless communication.

This document describes Cisco's switch product line and main products.

I. Overview

Cisco vswitch products are trademarks of Catalyst, including more than 10 series including 1900, 2800, 2900, 3500, 4000, 5000, 5500, 6000, and 8500. In general, these vswitches can be divided into two types:

The first type is a fixed configuration switch, including most models of 3500 and below. For example, 1924 is a 24-port 10 M Ethernet switch with two 100 M upstream ports. Except for limited software upgrades, these switches cannot be expanded;

The other type is a modular switch, which mainly refers to 4000 or more models. network designers can select different numbers and models of interface boards, power supply modules and corresponding software based on network requirements.

When choosing a device, many people have a headache for long product models. In fact, Cisco has a rule for product naming. For a Catalyst switch, the product name format is as follows:

Catalyst nn xx [-C] [-M] [-A/-EN]

NN indicates the serial number of the vswitch, XX indicates the number of ports for a fixed-configuration vswitch, and XX indicates the number of slots for a modular vswitch. The-C mark indicates the interface with optical fiber, -M indicates modularization, and-A and-EN respectively indicate that the switch software is A standard board or Enterprise Edition.

Ii. Product Introduction

Currently, Cisco switches commonly used in network integration projects include the following series: 1900/2900 series, 3500 series, and 6500 series. They are used at the low end, middle end, and high end of the network respectively. The following describes the products of these series:

1. Low-end products

Let's talk about low-end products. 1900 and 2900 are typical low-end products. In fact, Cisco does not take a special advantage in the low-end switch market, because 3Com, Dlink and other companies have better performance and price ratios.

The 1900 vswitch is a typical low-end product for desktop computer access at the end of the network. It provides 12 or 24 10 M ports and 2 100 M ports. The 100 M port supports full-duplex communication and provides port bandwidth up to 200 Mbps. The server's backboard bandwidth is 320 Mbps.

1900 of the software with the Enterprise Edition also supports VLAN and ISL Trunking, with a maximum of four VLANs. However, low-end products generally do not require this function.

Some models of the 1900 with 100 BaseFX optical fiber interface. For example, C 1912C and C 1924C have a 100 MB Tx port and a MB Fx port, and C 1924F has two BaseFX interfaces. The main models of the 1900 Series are as follows:

C1912: 12 ports: 10 BaseTx, 2 ports: 100 BaseTx, and 1 AUI Port

C 1912C: 12 ports: 10 BaseTx, 1 port: 100 BaseTx, 1 AUI port, 1 port: 100 BaseFx Port

C1924: 24 ports: 10 BaseTx, 2 ports: 100 BaseTx, and 1 AUI Port

C 1924C: 24 ports 10 BaseTx, 1 port 100 BaseTx, 1 AUI port, 1 port 100 BaseFx Port

C 1924F: 24 ports, 10 BaseTx, 1 AUI port, and 1 100 BaseFx Port

If some desktop computers on your network are 100 M, the 2900 series may be more suitable. Compared with 1900, 2900 is characterized by an increase in speed. Its backplane speed can reach up to 3.2 GB and a maximum of 24 10/100 M adaptive ports. All ports support full-duplex communication, this greatly improves the speed of desktop access. In addition to the port speed, many other performance of 2900 has also significantly improved compared with the 1900 Series. For example, 2900 of the MAC address table capacity is 16 KB, 1024 VLANs can be divided, and ISL Trunking Protocol is supported.

The product line of the 2900 series is very long. Some are common 10/100 BaseTx switches, such as C2912 and C2924; some are fiber interfaces, such as C 2924C with two 100 BaseFx ports, and some are modular, for example, C 2924 M has two expansion slots. The expansion slot plug-in card can be placed in the 100 BaseTx module, 100 baseFx module, or even the ATM module and Gigabit Ethernet Interface Card (GBIC ). The details are as follows:

C2912-XL: 12 port 10/100 BaseTx adaptive

C2912MF-XL: 2 expansion slots, 12 port 100 BaseFX

C2924-XL: 24 port 10/100 BaseTX adaptive

C 2924C-XL: 22 port 10/100 BaseTX adaptive, 2 port 100 BaseFX

C 2924 M-XL: 2 expansion slots, 24 port 10/100 BaseTx adaptive

In the 2900 series, there are two unique products, one is C 2948G, and the other is C 2948G-L3. The price of 2948 Gbit/s is good. It uses the same software as the Catalyst 5000/5500, with 48 10/100 Mbps adaptive Ethernet ports and 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 24 Gbit/s back-board bandwidth, redundant power supply with hot swapping, with a series of fault tolerance features and network management features. C 2948G-L3 is added with layer-3 switching capability based on C 2948G, and the maximum layer-3 packet throughput can reach 10 Mpps. However, in general, the 2900 series switches are generally used at the low end of the network. The gigabit and routing capabilities are not very important, so the two 2948 switches are not used much in actual projects.

2. Mid-range products

Let's look at the mid-end products. The 3500 series of mid-end products are widely used and representative.

The basic features of the C3500 series switches include a backboard bandwidth of up to 10 Gbps and a forwarding rate of 7.5 Mpps. It supports 250 VLANs, IEEE 802.1Q and ISL Trunking, and CGMP/Gigabit Ethernet switches, optional redundant power supply. However, the biggest feature of C3500 is management and gigabit.

In terms of management features, C3500 implements Cisco's switch cluster technology. It can interconnect 16 C3500, C2900, and C1900 series switches and manage them through an IP address. The Cisco Visual Switch Manager (CVSM) software in C3500 can also be used to conveniently set and manage switches through a browser.

In terms of gigabit features, C3500 fully supports Gigabit interface cards (GBIC ). Currently, GBIC has three types of 1000 BaseSx, which are applicable to multimode optical fiber, with a maximum distance of 550 m; 1000 BaseLX/LH, multimode/single-mode optical fiber, and a maximum distance of 10 km; 1000 BaseZX is applicable to single-mode optical fiber, the maximum distance is 100 km.

There are four major C3500 models:

Catalyst 3508g xl: 8 GBIC slots

Catalyst 3512 XL: 12 port 10/100 M adaptive, 2 port GBIC slots

Catalyst 3524 XL: 24 port 10/100 M adaptive, 2 port GBIC slots

Catalyst 3548 XL: 48 Port 10/100 M adaptive, 2 port GBIC slots

3. High-end products

Finally, we will introduce high-end products. For enterprise data networks, the C6000 series replaces the original C5000 series and is the most common product.

The Catalyst 6000 series switches provide high-performance, multi-layer switching solutions for the campus network. They are designed specifically for application environments that require Gigabit scalability, high availability, and multi-layer switching, it is mainly intended for backbone connections in the park.

The Catalyst 6000 series is composed of two types of switches, Catalyst 6000 and Catalyst 6500, both of which contain 6 or 9 slot models: 6006, 6009, 6506, and 6509, in particular, 6509 is the most widely used. All models support the same super engine and interface module, protecting users' investment. This series of features mainly include:

High port density. Supports up to 384 10/100 BaseTx adaptive Ethernet ports, 192 100 BaseFX optical fiber fast Ethernet ports, and 130 Gigabit Ethernet ports (GBIC slots ).

Fast. The C6500 switching backplane can be extended to 256 Gbps, and the multi-layer switching speed can be extended to 150 Mpps. The C6000 switching backboard bandwidth is 32 Gbps, and the multi-layer switching rate is 30 Mpps. Supports up to 8 Fast/Gigabit Ethernet ports connected using Ethernet Channel Technology (Fast EtherChannel, FEC or Gigabit EtherChannel, GEC), logically achieving a port rate of 16 Gbps, you can also implement port aggregation across modules.

Multi-layer switching. The C6000 series multi-layer switching module can be used for line rate IP, IPX, and IP-multicast routing.

Good fault tolerance. C6000 series with redundant super engine, redundant Load Balancing power supply, redundant fan, redundant system clock, redundant uplink, redundant switching back board (only for C6500 series ), high Availability of the system is achieved.

Rich software features. C6000 software supports a wide range of protocols, including NetFlow, VTP (VLAN Trunking Protocol), VQP (VLAN Query Protocol), ISL Trunking, HSRP (Hot Standby Router Protocol) port Security, TACACS, CGMP (Cisco Group Management Protocol), IGMP, and so on.