SMC Networks SMC8126PL2-F manual Switch Architecture, Power-over-EthernetCapability, Introduction

1 Introduction

Switch Architecture

The SMC8126PL2-F employs a wire-speed, non-blocking switching fabric. This permits simultaneous wire-speed transport of multiple packets at low latency on all ports. It also features full-duplex capability on all ports, which effectively doubles the bandwidth of each connection.

This switch uses store-and-forward switching to ensure maximum data integrity. With store-and-forward switching, the entire packet must be received into a buffer and checked for validity before being forwarded. This prevents errors from being propagated throughout the network.

Power-over-Ethernet Capability

The switch’s 24 10/100/1000 Mbps ports support the Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) standard that enables DC power to be supplied to attached devices using wires in the connecting Ethernet cable. Any PoE compliant device attached to a port can directly draw power from the switch over the Ethernet cable without requiring its own separate power source. This capability gives network administrators centralized power control for devices such as IP phones and wireless access points, which translates into greater network availability.

For each attached PoE device, the switch automatically senses the load and dynamically supplies the required power. The switch delivers power to a device using wire pairs in the UTP or STP cable. Ports 1~4 can provide up to 30W of power, and ports 5~24 can provide up to 15.4W. Network devices such as IP phones, wireless access points, and network cameras, typically consume less than 10 W of power, so they are ideal for Power-over-Ethernet applications.

Network Management Options

The SMC8126PL2-F contains a comprehensive array of LEDs for “at-a-glance” monitoring of network and port status. It also includes a management agent that allows you to configure or monitor the switch using its embedded management software, or via SNMP applications. To manage this switch, you can make a direct connection to the console port (out-of-band), or you can manage the switch through

anetwork connection (in-band) using Telnet, the on-board web agent, or SNMP-based network management software.

For a detailed description of this switch’s advanced features, refer to the Management Guide.

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