HP ProCurve Routing Switch 9308M / 9304M Reviewer’s Guide

1. Background

This Routing Switch Reviewer’s Guide will help network testing engineers at computer trade publications, resellers and end-user sites evaluate the merits of the HP ProCurve routing switches.

1.1 HP’s Proactive Networking

HP proactive networking is an extensible line of products working together to provide the control network administrators need to deliver the network uptime and performance that their organizations require. This guide describes one part of HP proactive networking: the HP ProCurve Routing Switch 9308M and HP ProCurve Routing Switch 9304M products.

1.2 What is a Routing Switch?

A routing switch combines the speed and low cost of a Layer 2 switch, with the ability to route at Layer 3. Unlike traditional routers which are processor based, a routing switch does its routing in hardware at or near wire speed for IP. Some routing switches, such as the HP ProCurve routing switches, also route IPX in hardware. In addition, HP ProCurve routing switches provide processor- based AppleTalk routing. Each port on the routing switch can be routed, or combinations of ports can be switched, with the port groups tied to virtual router interfaces inside the routing switch.

It is this combination of high speed, flexibility, and low cost that make routing switches very attractive for local LAN environments.

1.3 Hewlett-Packard Switch Products

1.3.1 HP ProCurve Routing Switches Covered in this Guide

This guide covers the following Hewlett-Packard routing switch products:

HP ProCurve Routing Switch 9308M

A feature-rich, modular, 8 slot chassis-based routing switch delivering 96 million pps performance with up to 64 Gigabit Ethernet ports or up to 188 10/100 Mbps autosensing ports. Routes IP, IPX and AppleTalk. This product is ideal for large networks and provides high performance as a collapsed backbone. Modules available are:

•HP ProCurve 9300 10/100 Module (24 port)

•HP ProCurve 9300 10/100 Management Module (16 port)

•HP ProCurve 9300 100Base-FX Module (24 port, MT-RJ connectors)

•HP ProCurve 9300 Gigabit SX Module (8 port, SC connectors)

•HP ProCurve 9300 Gigabit SX Management Module (8 port, SC connectors)

•HP ProCurve 9300 Gigabit SX/LX Module(4 ports SX, 4 ports LX, SC connectors)

•HP ProCurve 9300 Gigabit SX/LX Management Module (4 ports SX, 4 ports LX, SC connectors)

HP ProCurve Routing Switch 9304M

A feature-rich, modular, 4 slot chassis-based routing switch delivering 48 million pps performance with up to 32 Gigabit Ethernet ports or up to 88 10/100 autosensing ports. This product is ideal for medium-to-large networks and provides high performance in collapsed backbones, data centers, and server farms. Has the same architecture design and uses the same modules as the 9308M.

©1999 Hewlett-Packard Company

Revision 4.0 – 4/1/1999

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