modular systems that use a common power supply for both the systems and the PoE equipment. In the FastIron SuperX/SX family, the power consumption of a line module’s PoE circuitry does not impact the system power. Similarly, the power consumption of the line modules, switch modules, and management modules does not impact the PoE power.
Power consumption for the system and PoE are calculated, provisioned, and managed independently of one another. As more PoE devices are added to a switch, a simple power budget calculation determines whether another PoE power supply needs to be added to the switch. The system power distribution and the PoE power distribution subsystems are each designed for M+N load-sharing operation. This dual- distribution power design simplifies the power configuration of the system while enhancing system reliability.
The chassis can be configured for a wide range of power environments including: 110V/220V AC power, -48V DC power and mixed AC/DC power configurations. To scale PoE configurations, PoE power supplies are available in two ratings—1250W
and 2500W. When configured with four 2500W PoE supplies, the FastIron SX
1600 supports up to 384 10/100/1000 Mbps Class 3 PoE ports and still maintains N+1 power redundancy. This resiliency is unmatched in the industry.
Intelligent and Scalable Power Over Ethernet (PoE)
PoE is a key enabler of applications such as VoIP, IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs, and IP video. The FastIron SuperX/SX is a third- generation PoE-capable switch family and incorporates the latest advances in PoE provisioning and system design, delivering scalable and intelligent PoE to the enterprise. The PoE power distribution subsystem
is independent of the system power,
eliminating system disruption in the event of PoE over-subscription or a PoE power failure. Customers have the choice of purchasing PoE-ready line modules or upgrading 10/100/1000 Mbps line modules when needed with field-installable PoE daughter modules. PoE power per port can be manually or dynamically configured. Dynamic configuration is supported using standards- based autodiscovery or legacy Layer 2 discovery protocols. Port priorities are also configurable and are used to prioritize PoE power in over-subscribed configurations.
Advanced QoS and Low Latency for Enterprise Convergence
The FastIron SuperX/SX family offers superior quality of service (QoS) features that enable network administrators to prioritize high-priority and delay-sensitive services throughout the network. FastIron SuperX/SX switches can classify, re-classify, police, mark, and re-mark an Ethernet frame or an IP packet prior to delivery.
This flexibility lets network administrators discriminate among various traffic flows and enforce packet-scheduling policies based on Layer 2 and Layer 3 QoS fields.
Once classified, the traffic is queued and scheduled for delivery. Three configurable queuing options provide the network administrator with flexible control over how the system services the queues. Weighted Round Robin (WRR) queuing applies user- configured weighting for servicing multiple queues, ensuring that even low priority queues are not starved for bandwidth. With Strict Priority (SP) queuing, queues are serviced in priority order ensuring that the highest-priority traffic is serviced ahead of lower priority queues. Combined SP and WRR queuing ensures that packets in the SP queue are serviced ahead of the WRR queues. Combined queuing is often used in VoIP networks where the VoIP traffic is assigned to the SP queue and data traffic is assigned to the WRR queues.
In addition, the switch management modules are available with integrated Gigabit Ethernet or 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports. These modules provide cost-effective system configurations supporting high-capacity connections to upstream switches. The management modules utilize high-performance system processors with high-capacity memory for scalable networking up to a routing capacity of 1 million BGP routes and 20 BGP peers.
The FastIron SuperX/SX switches utilize an advanced cell-based switch fabric with internal flow-control, ensuring very low latency and jitter performance for converged applications.
Ease of Use: Plug and Play
The FastIron SuperX/SX family supports the IEEE 802.1AB LLDP and ANSI TIA 1057 LLDP-MED standards, enabling organizations to build open convergence, advanced multi- vendor networks. LLDP greatly simplifies and enhances network management, asset management, and network troubleshooting. For example, it enables discovery of accurate physical network topologies, including those that have multiple VLANs where all subnets may not be known. LLDP-MED addresses the unique needs that voice and video demand in a converged network by advertising media and IP telephony specific messages that can be exchanged between the network and the endpoint devices. LLDP-MED provides exceptional interoperability, IP telephony troubleshooting, and automatic deployment of policies, inventory management, advanced PoE power negotiation, and E911 location/ emergency call service. These sophisticated features make converged network services easier to install, manage, and upgrade and significantly reduce operations costs.
