D-Link DES-3326S manual Before You Start, General Deployment Strategy, 168

DES-3326S Layer 3 Fast Ethernet Switch User’s Guide

Before You Start

The DES-3326S Layer 3 Switch supports a wide array of functions and gives great flexibility and increased network performance by eliminating the routing bottleneck between the WAN or Internet and the Intranet. Its function in a network can be thought of as a new generation of router that performs routing functions in hardware, rather than software. It is a router that also has up to 24+2 independent Ethernet collision domains – each of which can be assigned an IP subnet.

This flexibility and rich feature set requires a bit of thought to arrive at a deployment strategy that will maximize the potential of the DES-3326S Layer 3 switch.

General Deployment Strategy

1.Determine how the network would be best segmented. This is probably done using VLANs in an existing layer 2 switched network.

2.Develop an IP addressing scheme. This involves allocating a block of IP addresses to each network segment. Each network subnet is then assigned a network address and a subnet mask. See Chapter 5, Switch Management Concepts section titled IP Addressing and Subnetting for more information.

3.Determine which network resources must be shared by the subnets. Shared resources may be connected directly to the Layer 3 switch, if need be. Static routes to each of the shared resources should be determined.

168 Web-Based Switch Management