New Catalyst 2926G and the Availability of the Catalyst 8540 Enable End-To-End Gigabit Solutions
- More information about the Cisco Catalyst 2900 Series 10/100 Switching
- More information on the Cisco 8500 Switch Router Series
- More information on the Cisco 8540 Multiservice ATM Switch Router
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- October 21, 1998 -- Cisco Systems, Inc., today unveiled a new enterprise desktop switch, the Catalyst. 2926G and also announced the availability of the Catalyst 8540. These solutions enable customers to deploy end-to-end Layer 3 capabilities and cost-effective 10/100/1000 connectivity with proven Cisco reliability, scalability and enterprise feature sets for wiring closet and backbone applications.
The Catalyst 2926G is a platform extension to Cisco's Catalyst 2900 series of fixed-configuration enterprise switching solutions. The Catalyst 2926G offers 24 ports of 10/100 auto-sensing auto-configuring connectivity with the choice of 1000BaseSX or 1000BaseLX/LH uplinks. With a gigabit architecture, the Catalyst 2926G provides the scalability, flexibility, management, and investment protection required for building next-generation switched intranets.
"Our organization was looking for a high-performance solution that integrated seamlessly into our infrastructure and supported a number of enterprise features we require," said Eric Pylko, global infrastructure coordinator at Eastman Kodak Company. "Cisco's solutions fit well within our network and the gigabit uplinks have boosted our wiring closet performance significantly."
Scalable Layer 3 switching for the wiring closet
As the trend to spread intelligence throughout the network continues, Cisco is providing multilayer switching services throughout its Catalyst family of products ranging from the Catalyst 2900 up through the Catalyst 8500 series.The Catalyst 2926G was designed leveraging the popular Catalyst 5500/5000 Series architecture and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Because of this similarity, the Catalyst 2926G is software compatible with all software releases that support the modular Catalyst 5500/5000 Series components including the Supervisor III.
The Catalyst 2926G also support Fast EtherChannel. for port aggregation on all 10/100 auto sensing ports, including automatic load balancing, fault detection, and fast-failover capabilities across links. In addition, Fast EtherChannel resiliency provides link redundancy and automatic failover, in the event of a network problem.
Through the use of Cisco's NetFlow switching, the Catalyst 2926G can handle Layer 3 switching at wire speed and efficiently route packets using layer 4 information. The intelligent switching fabric monitors all system components, and is responsible for all switching and forwarding functions in the switch.
In addition to the performance benefits of Layer 3 switching, the Catalyst 2926G supports multilayer services designed to enhance any wiring closet. The hardware-based port protocol filtering feature provides broadcast traffic optimization within a virtual LAN (VLAN) domain. This architecture results in more efficient use of network bandwidth for end stations.
The Catalyst 2926G also provides end-to-end, scalable bandwidth for multimedia and multicast applications through industry-standard protocols such as Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) and Cisco-enhanced protocols such as Cisco Group Management Protocol (CGMP). Application prioritization is supported through industry-standard protocols such as IEEE 802.1p and 802.1Q on all 10/100 auto-sensing ports.
High Performance Layer 3 switching in the backbone
In order to equip customers with high-performance options for enterprise backbones, Cisco is also announcing the availability of the 13-slot Catalyst 8540 Switch Router.Cisco's Catalyst 8500 series provides wire speed, non-blocking IP, IPX and IP Multicast layer three (L3) switching while providing rich Quality of Service (QoS) features. The Catalyst 8500 Series Switch Routers are designed to meet the high performance requirements of the Backbone and support all the Cisco IOS. software routing protocols that are used today in backbone environments, while providing wire-speed routing performance from six to 24 million packets per second. Cisco IOS routing protocols include RIP Versions I and II, IGRP and EIGRP, OSPF, and static routes as well as route redistribution. The Catalyst 8500 also performs transparent bridging at wire speed.
Availability
The Catalyst 2926G will be available by the end of the year.Cisco Systems
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