Chapter 1
Introduction
The 9E106-06 is a multi-port Ethernet Switch Module for the SmartSwitch 9000 that provides high speed IEEE 802.1D compliant bridging and SecureFast™ Switching (SFS).
Each 9E106-06 is equipped with two advanced Intel i960® RISC microprocessors. One processor provides the module’s SNMP protocol stack for both IETF and Enterprise MIB extensions. Additional higher-level management services such as RMON and Distributed LAN Monitor (DLM) are also provided. The other processor acts as the primary switching device, continually directing network traffic to the appropriate destination interface.
The 9E106-06 module provides six user configurable front panel Ethernet Port Interfaces Module (EPIM) connections and one backplane connection to the SmartSwitch 9000 Flexible Network Bus (FNB). The FNB is a dual FDDI backplane channel that allows for reliable, high-capacity communications between all FNB modules. Users on all six Ethernet segments can access the hub’s Flexible Network Bus (FNB) and communicate with users on any other FNB based Ethernet, Token Ring, FDDI, ATM or WAN module. Since each FNB module translates its native user’s data packets to FDDI frames, all modules can communicate without the use of any external or additional bridge or router components.
Each EPIM Port is a single network segment that can operate in one of two ways: as a host to a single user or as a host to multiple users through another multiport switch, bridge, or repeater device. Ethernet networks are connected to the 9E106-06 using standard Cabletron EPIMs.
The 9E106-06 also features front panel LANVIEW™ Diagnostic LEDs to offer at-a-glance status information about each front panel port, as well as the operation of the overall module.
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