Cabletron Systems 2E43-27R, 2E42-27R manual Full Duplex Switched Ethernet, SmartTrunk

2E4X-27 Overview

All of the devices have two front panel slots (ports 25 and 26) for optional Fast Ethernet Interface Modules to support an uplink to 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet backbones or a high speed connection to a local server. There is also space for an optional HSIM to provide additional connectivity to various networking technologies.

1.4.2Full Duplex Switched Ethernet

Each switched Ethernet port supports full wire-speed Ethernet communications and can be configured to operate in Full Duplex Switched Ethernet (FDSE) mode. FDSE allows each port to provide a dedicated 20 Mbps bandwidth for file server or high-end workstation connections. The Fast Ethernet ports provide up to 200 Mbps of bandwidth.

1.4.3SmartTrunk

SmartTrunk, also referred to as SmartTrunking, is Cabletron Systems’ terminology for load balancing or load sharing. SmartTrunk technology provides an easy-to-implement mechanism to group, or aggregate, multiple physical links together to scale the backbone bandwidth beyond the limitations of a single link. All links are user-configurable so administrators can scale the backbone bandwidth by adding SmartTrunk links. The SmartTrunk benefits are as follows:

•All purchased bandwidth is used.

•Distributed, resilient links increase reliability and performance.

•Multiple technologies are supported within a single trunk for maximum flexibility.

For more information about SmartTrunk, refer to the Cabletron Systems SmartTrunk User’s Guide.

2E42-27/2E42-27R/2E43-27/2E43-27R User’s Guide 1-5