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Catalyst 3550 Multilayer Switch Software Configuration Guide
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Chapter1 Overview
Features
Performance
•Autosensing of port speed and autonegotiation of duplex mode on all switch ports for optimizing bandw idth
•IEEE 802.3X flow control on all Ethernet ports
•EtherChannel for enhanced fault tolerance and for providing up to 8 Gbps (Gigabit Ether Channe l) or 800 Mbp s (Fast
EtherChannel) full duplex of bandwidth between switches, rou ters , and serv er s
•Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP) for automatic creation of EtherChannel links
•Per-port storm control for preventing broadcast, multicast, and unicast storms
•Port blocking on forwarding unknown unicast and multicas t tra ffic
•Cisco Group Management Protocol (CGMP) server support and Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) snooping
for IGMP versions1 and 2:
–
(For CGMP devices) CGMP for limiting multicast traffic to specified end stations and reducing overall network
traffic
–
(For IGMP devices) IGMP snooping for limiting flooding of multicast traffic
•Multicast VLAN registration (MVR) to continuously send multicast streams in a multicast VLAN while isolating the
streams from subscriber VLANs for bandwidth and security reasons
•IGMP filtering for controlling the set of multicast groups to which hosts on a switch port can belong
•System Database Management (SDM) templates for allocating system resources to maximize support for user-selected
features
Manageability
•Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) for automating c onf iguration of switch information (such as IP address,
default gateway, host name, and Domain Name System [DNS] and Trivial File Transfer Protocol [TFTP] server names)
•Directed unicast requests to a DNS server for identifying a switch through its IP addr ess and i ts corres ponding h ost name
and to a TFTP server for administering software upgrades from a TFTP server
•Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) for identifying a switch through its IP address and its corresponding M edia Acce ss
Control (MAC) address
•Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) versions 1 and 2 for network topology discove ry and mapping between the switch and
other Cisco devices on the network
•Network Time Protocol (NTP) for providing a consistent timestamp to all switches from an external source
•Cisco IOS File System (IFS) for providing a single interface to all file systems that the switch uses
•In-band management access through CMS
•In-band management access through up to 16simultaneous Telnet connections for multiple command-line interface
(CLI)-based sessions over the network
•In-band management access through Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) versions1 and 2c get and set
requests
•Out-of-band management access through the switch console port to a directly attached terminal or to a remote terminal
through a serial connection or a modem
Note For additional descriptions of the management interfaces, see the “Management Options” section on page 1-5.
Table1-1 Features (continued)