Introduction

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Description of Software Features
The switch provides a wide range of advanced performance enhancing features.
Flow control eliminates the loss of packets due to bottlenecks caused by port
saturation. Broadcast storm suppression prevents broadcast traffic storms from
engulfing the network. Untagged (port-based), tagged, and protocol-based VLANs,
plus support for automatic GVRP VLAN registration provide traffic security and
efficient use of network bandwidth. CoS priority queueing ensures the minimum
delay for moving real-time multimedia data across the network. While multicast
filtering provides support for real-time network applications. Some of the
management features are briefly described below.
Configuration Backup and Restore – You can save the current configuration
settings to a file on a TFTP server, and later download this file to restore the switch
configuration settings.
Authentication – This switch authenticates management access via the console
port, Telnet or web browser. User names and passwords can be configured locally or
can be verified via a remote authentication server (i.e., RADIUS or TACACS+).
Port-based authentication is also supported via the IEEE 802.1x protocol. This
protocol uses the Extensible Authentication Protocol over LANs (EAPOL) to request
user credentials from the 802.1x client, and then verifies the client’s right to access
the network via an authentication server.
Other authentication options include HTTPS for secure management access via the
web, SSH for secure management access over a Telnet-equivalent connection, IP
address filtering for SNMP/web/Telnet management access, and MAC address
filtering for port access.
Access Control Lists – ACLs provide packet filtering for IP frames (based on
address, protocol, TCP/UDP port number or TCP control code) or any frames
(based on MAC address or Ethernet type). ACLs can by used to improve
performance by blocking unnecessary network traffic or to implement security
controls by restricting access to specific network resources or protocols.
Port Configuration – You can manually configure the speed, duplex mode, and
flow control used on specific ports, or use auto-negotiation to detect the connection
settings used by the attached device. Use the full-duplex mode on ports whenever
possible to double the throughput of switch connections. Flow control should also be
enabled to control network traffic during periods of congestion and prevent the loss
of packets when port buffer thresholds are exceeded. The switch supports flow
control based on the IEEE 802.3x standard.
Rate Limiting – This feature controls the maximum rate for traffic transmitted or
received on an interface. Rate limiting is configured on interfaces at the edge of a
network to limit traffic into or out of the network. Traffic that falls within the rate limit is
transmitted, while packets that exceed the acceptable amount of traffic are dropped.