Cisco Systems 3750E manual Network Demands Suggested Design Methods

Chapter 1 Overview

Network Configuration Examples

Table 1-1	Increasing Network Performance
Network Demands		Suggested Design Methods
Too many users on a single network		• Create smaller network segments so that fewer users share the bandwidth, and use
segment and a growing number of		VLANs and IP subnets to place the network resources in the same logical network
users accessing the Internet		as the users who access those resources most.
		• Use full-duplex operation between the switch and its connected workstations.
• Increased power of new PCs,		• Connect global resources—such as servers and routers to which the network users
workstations, and servers		require equal access—directly to the high-speed switch ports so that they have
• High bandwidth demand from		their own high-speed segment.
networked applications (such as		• Use the EtherChannel feature between the switch and its connected servers and
e-mail with large attached files)		routers.
and from bandwidth-intensive
applications (such as
multimedia)
	Bandwidth alone is not the only consideration when designing your network. As your network traffic
	profiles evolve, consider providing network services that can support applications for voice and data
	integration, multimedia integration, application prioritization, and security. Table 1-2describes some
	network demands and how you can meet them.
Table 1-2	Providing Network Services
Network Demands		Suggested Design Methods
Efficient bandwidth usage for		• Use IGMP snooping to efficiently forward multimedia and multicast traffic.
multimedia applications and		• Use other QoS mechanisms such as packet classification, marking, scheduling,
guaranteed bandwidth for critical
		and congestion avoidance to classify traffic with the appropriate priority level,
applications
		thereby providing maximum flexibility and support for mission-critical, unicast,
		and multicast and multimedia applications.
		• Use optional IP multicast routing to design networks better suited for multicast
		traffic.
		• Use MVR to continuously send multicast streams in a multicast VLAN but to
		isolate the streams from subscriber VLANs for bandwidth and security reasons.
High demand on network redundancy		• Use switch stacks, where all stack members are eligible stack masters in case of
and availability to provide always on		stack-master failure. All stack members have synchronized copies of the saved
mission-critical applications		and running configuration files of the switch stack.
		• Use cross-stack EtherChannels for providing redundant links across the switch
		stack.
		• Use Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) for cluster command switch and router
		redundancy.
		• Use VLAN trunks, cross-stack UplinkFast, and BackboneFast for traffic-load
		balancing on the uplink ports so that the uplink port with a lower relative port cost
		is selected to carry the VLAN traffic.

Catalyst 3750-E and 3560-E Switch Software Configuration Guide

OL-9775-02 1-17