3

Hardware Overview

This chapter describes the front panel and rear panel of the Switch and shows you how to make the hardware connections.

3.1 Front Panel Connections

The figure below shows the front panel of the Switch.

Figure 8 Front Panel

The following table describes the ports.

Table 1 Panel Connections

CONNECTO

DESCRIPTION

R

 

24 Dual

Each interface has one 1000Base-T copper RJ-45 port and one mini-GBIC

Personality

(Gigabit Interface Converter) fiber port, with one port active at a time.

Interfaces

 

• 24 1000Base-T Ports:

 

 

Connect these ports to high-bandwidth backbone network Ethernet

 

switches using Category 5/5e/6 1000Base-T Ethernet cables.

 

Use an 8-wire Ethernet cable for Gigabit connections. Using a 4-wire

 

Ethernet cable limits your connection to 100 Mbps. Note that the

 

connection speed also depends on what the Ethernet device at the

 

other end can support.

•24 Mini-GBIC Ports:

Use Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) transceivers in these ports for 1000Base-X fiber-optic connections to backbone Ethernet switches.

3.1.1Dual Personality Interfaces

There are 24 Dual Personality interfaces, comprising 24 1000Base-T/mini-GBIC combo ports. For each interface you can connect either to the 1000Base-T port or the mini-GBIC port. The mini-GBIC ports have priority over the 1000Base-T ports.

 

35

XGS-4728F User’s Guide