Corebuilder 3500 Multilayer Switch Allows You to Control Your Network Traffic Without Compromising Performance
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
data sheet 3Com® CoreBuilder ® 3500 MultiLayer Switch Enhances performance in switched Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, FDDI, and ATM LANs The CoreBuilder 3500 MultiLayer Switch allows you to control your network traffic without compromising performance. Key Benefits Performance. Advanced program- mable distributed ASIC+RISC Flexible Intelligent Routing Engine ® ® (FIRE) architecture provides non- The 3Com CoreBuilder 3500 forwarding functionality. It will also blocking, wire-speed routing and MultiLayer Switch redefines be used as an edge device performing switching on all 100 Mbps ports price/performance and functionality Layer 3 forwarding while connected for unicast, broadcast, and multi- cast packets with an aggregate in high-end switching and routing. to a backbone of Gigabit Ethernet or throughput of more than 4 million Built around sophisticated third- ATM. packets per second (pps). generation ASIC technology, the Migrating the network backbone Migration. The CoreBuilder 3500 switch provides wire-speed Layer 2 from Fiber Distributed Data Interface module will allow Ethernet, Fast and Layer 3 traffic forwarding and Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, FDDI, (FDDI) to ATM is another specialty supports real-time, multimedia net- and ATM to communicate trans- of this system. The CoreBuilder 3500 parently. The subnet structure work traffic using the most advanced switch can mix and match ATM, can be maintained, avoiding policy-based services found in net- readdressing end stations. 10/100 Fast Ethernet, Gigabit working devices today. Combined Ethernet, and FDDI interfaces in Policy. Policy-based services pri- with flexible virtual LAN (VLAN) oritize and allocate bandwidth to each of its four module slots for the support, multicast services, multipro- different types of network traffic. flexibility to move freely between tocol routing, network management Network management. The technologies. CoreBuilder 3500 AutoFocus with RMON-1 and RMON-2, and SmartAgent® software provides Roving Analysis Port (RAP), the With superb performance, flexibility, powerful self-management tools in conjunction with 3Com CoreBuilder 3500 MultiLayer Switch and network control features, the Transcend® network provides a robust and resilient CoreBuilder 3500 MultiLayer Switch management. networking infrastructure. is the ideal networking device to make the transition to a next-generation The CoreBuilder 3500 MultiLayer network. Switch is designed to act as a backbone LAN router, replacing legacy LAN routers for Layer 3 Switches Allows Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, FDDI, and ATM to communicate transparently Scaling Performance and IPX network boundaries, these routers Networks are not all based on Managing Growth with the become bottlenecks in traffic flows. The Ethernet. FDDI and ATM are popular CoreBuilder 3500 MultiLayer reason is that traditional routers were LAN backbone technologies. ATM was optimized to handle a diverse set of media once considered the only backbone tech- Switch types and speeds, where translation and nology that could be deployed if As networks become more complex and buffering ability were of paramount multimedia applications were to be used. performance requirements more importance, not wire-speed throughput Newer technologies such as Gigabit demanding, organizations need greater or low latencies. While some recent Ethernet have the potential to become ability to manage the evolution of these entries in the router space are much the choice of tomorrow’s LAN backbone infrastructures while making them improved in performance—some reaching infrastructures. Some Gigabit Ethernet increasingly transparent to users. Network 1 million pps—they have done so at a switches becoming available support CoS managers require the ability to build very high price point. and QoS and, combined with massive flexible, scalable, and easily managed bandwidth, have the potential to provide network solutions. Users also want all The CoreBuilder 3500 MultiLayer service levels adequate for video, voice, their applications, however sophisticated, Switch—Layer 3 Wire-Speed, and multimedia over Ethernet LANs. to be instantly available and extremely Multiprotocol Routing While not as robust as ATM QoS, it will responsive. With the CoreBuilder 3500 Today’s LAN infrastructures require a be available at lower cost and complexity. MultiLayer Switch and Transcend® net- new solution to the problem of for- Given this reality, any networking device work management software, these goals warding traffic across network boundaries. in consideration for use in backbones are not only attainable, but you can The answer is a new type of networking must provide a way to interconnect these build a network that will have the right device. This new device combines the technologies and provide a migration tools to scale performance and manage functions of current Layer 2 switches path for those networks that will be growth while providing policy services and LAN routers while adding features changing backbone technologies. This is for the first time. beyond what legacy LAN routers can an area where the CoreBuilder 3500 support. These new devices have been MultiLayer Switch plays very strongly. Evolution of Switched Networks referred to as Layer 3 switches, but that The demands of today’s networks are label does not fully describe the ability CoreBuilder 3500 Switching changing from a model where 80 percent of the CoreBuilder 3500 MultiLayer Architecture of traffic remained local with the rest Switch. This product can route packets What makes the CoreBuilder 3500 going through a backbone to either cen- at wire speeds across 10/100 Mbps product the industry-leading multilayer tralized servers or to some other part of Ethernet ports, scaling up to 4 million switch is its unique architecture. The an enterprise network. Today, 50 percent pps. The CoreBuilder 3500 MultiLayer switch is built around a third-generation of traffic remains local with the balance Switch also has low latencies associated architecture whose key element is the going across workgroups or to the back- with Layer 2 switches, typically 15 to FIRE ASIC. This generation not only bone. Also, shared media desktop 30 microseconds. Plus, the CoreBuilder builds upon advancements in Layer 2, connections are rapidly changing to 3500 MultiLayer Switch supports but provides extensive capabilities and switched connections to support increased sophisticated Class of Service (CoS) and wire-speed performance levels for Layer traffic loads. The immediate impact of Quality of Service (QoS) features that 3 routing, multicast forwarding, and this evolution is primarily felt in the tra- allow different types of traffic to have user-selectable policy services as well. ditional backbone routers that have been different levels of service—without There is no longer a disparity between deployed to segment LANs. With so affecting performance. Layer 2 and Layer 3 performance. True much more traffic crossing IP subnet and Layer 3 switched topologies can now be built with the control of Layer 3 and the performance of Layer 2 with absolutely no compromises. Application Frame Memory processor coprocessor subsystem Flexible Intelligent Routing Engine (FIRE) 3Com has extended the FIRE program- mable ASIC capabilities even further by Switch/ Admission Buffer memory Input router/flow control manager embedding a processor into the silicon. manager Output port port This gives FIRE the performance of an ASIC and makes it extensible as well. MAC Traffic Traffic Queue MAC Future enhancements, such as IP ver- classifier governor manager sion 6, can be incorporated without a product upgrade or a sacrifice in perfor- mance. This future proofing is a key MIB/RMON consideration when evaluating next- FIRE-Flexible Intelligent Routing Engine generation switching solutions. See the figures on this page and on page 4 for Data forwarding examples of FIRE architecture. Control signals FIRE introduces Distributed Packet FIRE Architecture Processing (DPP). With DPP, multiple 2 ® II SuperStack Switch 1100/3300 High Quality of Service PCs Best Effort Quality of Service SuperStack II Subnet 4 Desktop Switch ® II SuperStack PCs Switch 1100/3300 SuperStack II Subnet 5 Desktop Switch PCs Subnet 1 PCs SuperStack II Desktop Switch Subnet 6 Department servers PCs Subnet 2 SuperStack II Desktop Switch Transcend network management console Department servers PCs Subnet 3 The CoreBuilder 3500 switch used as a CoreBuilder 3500 switch LAN backbone router. Department servers Server farm Subnet 7 distributed forwarding engines rapidly All buffering is done on the output packets get small buffers. This uses and independently transfer packets because all the necessary checking and memory efficiently and increases the through the system. As a packet travels updates are complete by the time a system’s ability to handle large traffic through the pipeline, the system: packet arrives at the output stage. This bursts without losing a packet. These • Verifies frame integrity avoids accessing a packet in memory, dynamically constructed buffers are • Captures statistics for relevant one of the most costly operations in then allocated in a two-level hierarchy, MIBs, including RMON terms of performance. on a per-port basis and a common pool. • Determines VLANs This arrangement allows FIRE to guar- Dynamically Scalable Memory antee a fixed amount of buffering for S • Distinguishes bridged and The performance potential of advanced each interface yet handle large bursts of