1 IntroductionDescription of Software Features

The switch provides a wide range of advanced performance enhancing features. 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 Extensible Authentication Protocol over LANs (EAPOL) to request user credentials from the 802.1X client, and then uses the EAP between the switch and the authentication server to verify the client’s right to access the network via an authentication server (i.e., RADIUS server).

Other authentication options include HTTPS for secure management access via the web, SSH for secure management access over a Telnet-equivalent connection, SNMP Version 3, 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.

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.

Port Mirroring – The switch can unobtrusively mirror traffic from any port to a monitor port. You can then attach a protocol analyzer or RMON probe to this port to perform traffic analysis and verify connection integrity.

Port Trunking – Ports can be combined into an aggregate connection. Trunks can be manually set up or dynamically configured using IEEE 802.3-2002 (formerly IEEE 802.3ad) Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP). The additional ports dramatically increase the throughput across any connection, and provide redundancy by taking over the load if a port in the trunk should fail. The switch supports up to 4 trunks.

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