PLANNING

High-Speed Switch Links

Most common LAN implementations use a combination of hubs, bridges and routers. The bridges and routers quickly become bottlenecks, reducing overall network throughput.

Using switches instead of bridges and routers allows you to tie together LAN segments and retain a cohesive LAN structure in which any node can freely communicate with any other node in the network.

In the following figure, the TigerSwitch 100M (Model SMC6608M) is cascaded via the 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX daisy- chain port to an 8-port Fast Ethernet switch, SMC’s EZ Switch™ 100, forming a high-speed 200 Mbps, full-duplex backbone. The other 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX ports are connected to power users, and the 100BASE-FX ports are connected to servers.

Figure 2-4. Cascading to a Fast Ethernet Switch

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SMC Networks SMC6608T, SMC6608M manual High-Speed Switch Links, Cascading to a Fast Ethernet Switch