Cisco EtherSwitch Service Modules Feature Guide

Network Configuration Examples

Table 6

Providing Network Services (continued)

 

 

Network Demands

Suggested Design Methods

 

 

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 and

mission-critical applications

running configuration files of the switch stack.

 

 

Cross-stack EtherChannel for providing redundant links across the switch stack.

 

 

Use Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) for cluster command EtherSwitch

 

 

service module 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.

 

 

An evolving demand for IP telephony

Use QoS to prioritize applications such as IP telephony during congestion and to

 

 

help control both delay and jitter within the network.

 

 

Use internal interfaces that support at least two queues per port to prioritize voice

 

 

and data traffic as either high- or low-priority, based on 802.1p/Q. The

 

 

Cisco EtherSwitch service module supports at least four queues per port.

 

 

Use voice VLAN IDs (VVIDs) to provide separate VLANs for voice traffic.

 

 

 

You can use the Cisco EtherSwitch service modules and switch stacks to create the following:

Cost-effective wiring closet (Figure 8)—A cost-effective way to connect many users to the wiring closet is to have a switch stack of up to nine Cisco EtherSwitch service modules. To preserve switch connectivity if one EtherSwitch service module in the stack fails, connect the switches and enable either cross-stack EtherChannel or cross-stack UplinkFast.

You can have redundant uplink connections, using small form-factor pluggable (SFP) modules in the switch stack to a gigabit backbone switch, such as a Catalyst 4500 or Catalyst 3750-12S gigabit switch. You can also create backup paths by using Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, or EtherChannel links. If one of the redundant connections fails, the other can serve as a backup path.

Figure 8

Cost-Effective Wiring Closet

 

Cisco integrated services

Gigabit

router with EtherSwitch

service module

server

Cisco integrated

 

services router

 

with EtherSwitch

 

service module

Catalyst 3750 Layer 2 StackWise switch stack

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Cisco Systems NME-16ES-1G manual Cost-Effective Wiring Closet