Companies today realize that the booming e-business marketplace is pro- viding them with amazing growth opportunities. To take advantage of these opportunities and sustain this growth, IT managers must find a way to boost network performance in synch with their evolving e-business require- ments. 3Com has developed a family of modular, stackable switches designed to help fast-growing companies add power and performance to their networks easily, economically, and with min- imum disruption.
The SuperStack II Switch 1100/3300 family includes four high- performance switches that can be mixed and matched to achieve the per- fect combination of cost and features for desktop, workgroup, and backbone aggregation. This is the first family of switches that enables IT managers to create a “virtual stack” of different switches that act as one logical switch—providing an easy and afford- able way to build performance and capabilities into the network as needed.
Each switch has a built-in matrix port connector at the rear of the unit. Two units can be connected with a low-cost SuperStack II Switch matrix cable; three or more units can be stacked using a SuperStack II Switch matrix module that delivers high- speed/performance interswitch links— eliminating bottlenecks between switches. Stacked switches communi- cate through matrix ports, so you don’t consume valuable Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet ports. You can mix and match multiple switches to create one virtual switch of up to 110
switched ports that is manageable as a single entity with a single IP address (note: multiple IP addresses can be sup- ported to provide resilient stack management).
To make management even easier, the SuperStack II 1100/3300 family features Web-based monitoring and control, so IT staff can troubleshoot or configure a stack from any location. Embedded Remote Monitoring (RMON) support provides detailed information on network traffic. The switches also ship with 3Com Transcend Network Supervisor, an easy and automatic management solution specifically designed for small- and medium-sized businesses.
For added reliability, the switches support resilient links and spanning tree, as well as optional redundant power supplies.
In addition to this easy mix-and- match scalability, the SuperStack II Switch 1100/3300 family supports a broad range of expansion modules (such as Layer 3 switching, Gigabit Ethernet, or ATM support) to add con- nectivity or functionality as needed.
What’s more, all four models share the same software, reducing training time and ensuring flawless interoper- ability. Companies can even bolster their e-business initiatives by adding voice and video to their networks with a rich traffic management feature set, including:
•Policy enforcement with Fast IP, IGMP snooping, IEEE 802.1D (incorporating 802.1p prioritiza- tion), and IEEE 802.1Q standards-based VLANs
•Dual queues to help prioritize multi- media traffic
•Multicast filtering using IGMP snooping/GMRP for more efficient bandwidth utilization when trans- porting video traffic
•Elastic port buffering for on-the-fly port buffer memory allocation, enabling automatic performance optimization based on network traffic
•Flow control to maximize perfor- mance and minimize packet loss under heavy network loading
•Automatic detection of full-/half- duplex operation on all ports to maximize performance without manual configuration
•Trunking support to aggregate links into a single high-speed connection to other switches or backbone net- works
•Optional Layer 3 switching to increase network performance by off-loading legacy routers and con- trolling broadcast/multimedia traffic
All models in the SuperStack II Switch 1100/3300 family come with the 3Com lifetime limited warranty, which includes 5 years of free advance hardware replacement (3Com will ship a new switch out to you even before you return the old one.). For extra assurance, you’ll also receive 90 days of free telephone technical support, as well as free lifetime software upgrades.
