How to recognize the Cisco Switch Model in one minute

There are many users who use Cisco switches. When selecting their products, it is a headache to see Cisco switch models. Here we mainly explain how to quickly understand these complex Cisco switch models. The product line of the 2900 series is very long. Some of them are common 10/100 BaseTx Cisco switches, such as C2912 and C2924, some are with Optical Fiber interfaces, such as C2924C 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 Cisco switches are generally used at the low end of the network. The gigabit and routing capabilities are not very important, so the two 2948 vswitches are not used much in actual projects.

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 a Cisco switch 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 Cisco switches in the C3500, C2900, and C1900 series 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

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 Cisco switches of the Catalyst 6000 and Catalyst 6500 models, both of which contain 6 or 9 slot models, 6006, 6009, and 6506, respectively, 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 expanded to 256 Gbps, and the multi-layer switching speed can be expanded 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: multi-layer switching modules of the C6000 series 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 connection, redundant switching back board (only for C6500 series ), high Availability of the system is achieved.

Rich software features: C6000 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.