Dell 6024F manual Diagram 3. Mini-Core or Remote Office Solution, Page, January

switch all packets to the core. Data leaving the stack of Edge Switch 1 with a destination address at Edge Switch 2 would not have to take the additional hops of going to the core of the network and then back out to Edge Switch 2.

In this scenario, the aggregation switch can actually run multiple links to the network core and to the edge switches to provide faster connectivity. Edge Switch 1 consists of three stacked PowerConnect 3348s that are linked together via their stacking modules. One uplink is connected to the first PowerConnect 6024F at the top of the stack, while a second uplink is connected to the redundant PowerConnect 6024 F. This creates multiple data paths to the core, providing high availability of the network data. Edge Switch 2 is similar except the switches are cascaded to each other via their Gigabit ports. Multiple Spanning Tree protocol on the PowerConnect 6024 switches is enabled to help prevent a broadcast storm. RIP or OSPF routing can be enabled to route data between these subnets.

Application benefits include:

-High bandwidth network from the desktop to the core

-Resilient and cost-effective wiring closet solutions

-Cost-effective aggregation solution

Diagram 3. Mini-Core or Remote Office Solution

			WAN Router
			Firewall
	Mini-Core / Remote
	PowerConnect 6024
2Gbps LAG		2Gbps LAG		Servers
(Trunk A)		(Trunk B)

Switch 1

PowerConnect 5224

Switch 2 & 3

PowerConnect 3348

Diagram 3 is an example of a Gigabit Ethernet mini-core or remote office solution designed using the PowerConnect 6024. This solution provides Gigabit Ethernet connectivity to the local servers and WAN/firewall devices. Uplink trunks from switches 1, 2 and 3 are aggregated to the PowerConnect 6024, thus providing a high speed connection from the edge switches. This solution provides both high-performance and high reliability while offering Layer 3 routing functionality in a mini-core application. The solution can easily scale by adding additional PowerConnect 6024 switches to create a redundant mini-core network.

Page 12 January 2004