View Gigabit Ethernet switches from storage applications

In the network, hardware and software are only tools, and the most valuable information is the information flowing in the network. With the accumulation of enterprise information data, the demand for information data backup and sharing is growing, and the requirements for storage are also increasing. The complexity of enterprise systems has been greatly improved, and databases have been widely used. More and more enterprises are involved in unified data storage, synchronization, and sharing. Data centralization requires high storage stability and security, leading to the adoption of high-performance and high-price storage systems. Because of the high investment, enterprises certainly share applications to the maximum extent, which in turn promotes higher centralization. This trend leads to an increasing access to storage points and an increasing access bottleneck.

Nowadays, many applications require unified storage, and the storage technology has also evolved to NAS network storage. Even with the simplest DAS, the server's SCSI hard disk is a gigabit port on the storage end. Almost 100% of NAS storage devices provide Gigabit copper interfaces. The storage mode of the DAS structure plays a dominant role in the server, while 90% of servers provide Gigabit copper interfaces. There is no doubt that the use of switches with gigabit copper interfaces has a great advantage at the storage point, that is, it can solve the storage bottleneck with a low investment.

Another problem is that in small and medium-sized local networks, you do not need to increase the bandwidth of the terminal to save investment while solving the storage bottleneck. Most of the GE copper switch on the market is Ge copper, and the price is high. In small and medium network applications, Gigabit copper cables and common 10/100 interfaces should be a cost-effective choice. How to select the most suitable switch? There are not many vswitches on the market with 10/100 or Gigabit copper interfaces. I think there are three vswitches with good cost performance:

1. Edimax ES-5224R +

Edimax ES-5224R +

Product Quotation: 4000-4500

Edimax ES-5224R + is a 24-port 10/100 with two 1000 MB copper port can be simple network type switch. Its main performances include:

A. Support for full-line speed and Flow Control: the no-blocking mechanism of the switch provides full-line speed switching for your network, so as to ensure that the communication bottleneck is not caused by the switch. Vswitch back pressure/IEEE 802.3x) ensures reliable data transmission to prevent packet loss, and improves network performance and reliability.

B. Support for Auto-MDI/MDI-X: each port of the switch can automatically identify the line sequence type of the straight and cross lines, so you don't have to worry about what sort of line UTP cable to use.

C. Support for VLAN functions: the switch supports Port-based and VLAN-based labeled 802.1Q tags, allowing you to comprehensively improve network performance.

D. Support for port aggregation Trunking) function: You can use the Trunking function to bind several ports and provide a larger bandwidth aggregation channel between the switch and the switch, and between the switch and the server.

E. quality service (QoS) support: with QoS, you can define the priority level for users or certain applications to use the network. users or applications are classified by different priority levels, when a data packet enters the cache of the switch, the network is always preferentially used when the priority is higher than the priority.

2. D-LINK DES-1026G

D-LINK DES-1026G

Product Quotation: 1850-2500

The D-LINK DES-1026G is a common switch with 24 10/100 ports and two 1000 m copper ports. It can be said that it is a switch designed for medium and small network solutions to solve storage and server bottlenecks. Port supports automatic line sequence crossover with consistent stability of D-LINK products. This product is well positioned and priced, making it the best choice for the transition from 100 Mbit/s Ethernet to Gigabit Ethernet. In the market, many switch dealers will recommend this product to you because it is easy for users to accept.

3. Netgear FSM726

Netgear FSM726

Product Quotation: 5500-6600

Netgear FSM726 is a two-port 1000 M vswitch with 10/100 TB + 24 ports and 10/100 M network management. Rich L2 management functions, such as VLAN Virtual LAN (VLAN), trunking link aggregation), QoS service quality), DiffServ, RADIUS client, and broadcast storm control. Known as NETGEAR's most economical network management switch. In fact, we can see from the panel that FSM726 has two 1-gigabit electrical ports and two 1-gigabit GBIC ports, but the corresponding upstream and downstream 1-gigabit electrical ports and 1-gigabit GBIC ports can only use one of them. This design facilitates customers who have optical fiber requirements, although there will be a slight increase in costs. As a professional vendor for Small and Medium-sized applications, Netgear is relatively high, but with its foreign background, it also has certain requirements in the market.

Driven by various applications, Ethernet will inevitably go to gigabit network. However, on the eve of the full application of gigabit network, the most urgent storage and server bottlenecks can be solved, and network efficiency can be greatly improved, it is the best choice to solve practical problems.

1. Introduction to speed-to-Gigabit Ethernet Switches
2. Quidway S1200 series Gigabit Ethernet Switches