AMX NXA-ENET24 manual Description of Software Features

Introduction

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. Port-based VLANs 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 and routing 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 or Telnet. 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 SSH for secure management access over a Telnet-equivalent connection, IP address filtering for SNMP/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.

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.

DHCP Server and DHCP Relay – Since DHCP uses a broadcast mechanism, a DHCP server and its client must physically reside on the same subnet. Since it is not practical to have a DHCP server on every subnet, DHCP Relay is also supported to allow dynamic configuration of local clients from a DHCP server located in a different network.

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.

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 802.3ad 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 one trunk with two Gigabit optional module ports.

Broadcast Storm Control – Broadcast suppression prevents broadcast traffic from overwhelming the network. When enabled on a port, the level of broadcast traffic passing through the port is restricted. If broadcast traffic rises above a pre-defined threshold, it will be throttled until the level falls back beneath the threshold.

Static Addresses – A static address can be assigned to a specific interface on this switch. Static addresses are bound to the assigned interface and will not be moved. When a static address is seen on another interface, the address will be ignored and will not be written to the address table. Static

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