Product positioning
Overview
A widely used method for segmenting the areas in which switches are installed calls for three different classifications: access, distribution, and core. Access switches provide aggregation of end nodes for connection to a distribution or core switch and are usually found in wiring closets. Distribution switches aggregate the links from access switches and possibly server farms. Distribution switches anchor the network in a building, or, for small networks, across a campus. Core switches provide the focal point of the local network, aggregating the distribution switches, providing connectivity for central site data centers, and providing connectivity in many cases to the external network.
Regardless of your network’s architecture—whether you have adopted HP ProCurve’s Adaptive EDGE Architecture with its intelligence at the edge, or perhaps you use a traditional architecture that concentrates intelligence at the center of the network—you have a choice of wiring topologies to implement that architecture.
The intelligence and throughput of the HP ProCurve Switch 3500yl, 5400zl, and 6200yl Series make them suitable for applications at or near the edge of networks of all sizes, or in the center of networks that are small-to-moderate in size. The Switch 8200zl offers the same ProVision ASIC intelligence and throughput with a redundant management module design and flexible switch fabric modules for demanding, high-availability applications, whether at the core, distribution, or edge of your network. The modular structure of both the HP ProCurve Switch 8200zl and 5400zl Series gives you the flexibility to tailor the switch to match your topology’s requirements. The HP ProCurve Switch 6200yl, an advanced Layer 3 stackable, is designed to be deployed as an aggregator of traffic from the edge to the core of the network. The HP ProCurve Switch 6600, an advanced Layer 3 stackable with front-to-back cooling and integrated redundant power, is specifically designed to be deployed as a data center top-of-rack switch for high performance server access layer connectivity.
The foundation for all of these switches is a purpose-built, programmable ProVision ASIC that allows the most demanding networking features, such as QoS and security, to be implemented in a scalable yet granular fashion. A high-capacity switch fabric, based on the most recent ProVision ASIC architecture, is integrated with the switch backplane. The HP ProCurve Switch 3500yl, 5400zl, 6200yl, 6600, and 8212zl Series have been designed as a product family, using the ProVision ASICs and software, providing consistency and scalability across the family.
The ProVision ASICs are aimed at accomplishing several objectives:
•Provide a great engineering balance between feature capabilities, performance, and price
•Bring sophisticated control features to the edge of the network
•Have programmable features that allow future requirements to be accommodated in the ASICs
Key features of the HP ProCurve Switch 3500yl, 5400zl, 6200yl, 6600, and 8200 series include:
•Performance—high-capacity switch fabric (from 115 Gbps to 692 Gbps backplane speed), bandwidth shaping and control, quality of service, L2 and L3 jumbo frames
•Security—ACLs (per-port or identity-driven); virus throttle; switch CPU protection; detection of malicious attacks; DHCP protection; BPDU port protection; Dynamic ARP protection; Dynamic IP lockdown; STP root guard; IP and MAC lockdown/lockout; 802.1X, Web, and MAC user authentication; USB secure autorun; and management access control (SSH, SSL, TACACS+, secure FTP)
•Operational flexibility—high-port density in 4U and 7U form factors, Versatile Intelligent Ports (10/100/1000, PoE-enabled), power supply choices for optimum PoE
•Resiliency—redundant power supplies, hot-swappable/hot-insertable modules, MSTP, switch meshing, VRRP, OSPF-ECMP
•Layer 2-GVRP, VLAN, Q-in-Q
•IP Routing—RIPv1, RIPv2, OSPF, PIM-SM, PIM-DM, static route
•Solution integration: 8200zl-hosted application/services deployment via HP ProCurve ONE Services zl Module
•IPv6-host, IPv4/IPv6 dual stack, ACL, QoS, and MLD snooping
•Convergence-IP multicast snooping (data-driven IGMP), LLDP-MED, RADIUS VLAN, PoE
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