Switch 3812 and Switch 3824

Implementation Guide

3C17401, 3C17400

http://www.3com.com/

Part No. DUA1740-0BAA01

Published May 2003
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CONTENTS

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

Conventions 8
Related Documentation 9
Documentation Comments 9
Product Registration 10

1 SWITCH FEATURES OVERVIEW

What is Management Software? 11
Switch Features Explained 11
Automatic IP Configuration 12
Port Security 12
Aggregated Links 12
Auto-negotiation 12
Multicast Filtering 13
Spanning Tree Protocol and Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol 13
Switch Database 14
Traffic Prioritization 14
RMON 14
Broadcast Storm Control 15
VLANs 15
Configuration Save and Restore 15

2 OPTIMIZING BANDWIDTH
Port Features 17
Duplex 17
Flow Control 18
Auto-negotiation 18
Aggregated Links 19
How 802.3ad Link Aggregation Operates 19
Implementing 802.3ad Aggregated Links 20
Aggregated Links and Your Switch 21
Aggregated Link — Manual Configuration Example 24

3 USING MULTICAST FILTERING

What is an IP Multicast? 27
Benefits of Multicast 28
Multicast Filtering 28
Multicast Filtering and Your Switch 29
IGMP Multicast Filtering 30

4 USING RESILIENCE FEATURES

Resilience Feature Overview 34
Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) 34
Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) 35
What is STP? 35
How STP Works 37
STP Requirements 37
STP Calculation 38
STP Configuration 38
STP Reconfiguration 39
How RSTP Differs to STP 39
STP Example 39
STP Configurations 41
Using STP on a Network with Multiple VLANs 43

5 USING THE SWITCH DATABASE

What is the Switch Database? 45
How Switch Database Entries Get Added 45
Switch Database Entry States 46

6 USING TRAFFIC PRIORITIZATION

What is Traffic Prioritization? 48
How Traffic Prioritization Works 48
Traffic Classification 49
Traffic Marking 50
Traffic Re-Marking 52
Traffic Prioritization 52
Traffic Queues 56
Important QoS Considerations 56
Default QoS Configurations 58

7 STATUS MONITORING AND STATISTICS

RMON 59
What is RMON? 59
The RMON Groups 59
Benefits of RMON 61
RMON and the Switch 61
Alarm Events 62

8 SETTING UP VIRTUAL LANS

What are VLANs? 63
Benefits of VLANs 64
VLANs and Your Switch 65
The Default VLAN 65
Communication Between VLANs 65
Creating New VLANs 66
VLANs: Tagged and Untagged Membership 66
VLAN Configuration Examples 67
Using Untagged Connections 67
Using 802.1Q Tagged Connections 68

9 USING AUTOMATIC IP CONFIGURATION

How Your Switch Obtains IP Information 72
How Automatic IP Configuration Works 72
Automatic Process 72
Important Considerations 72
Server Support 73
Event Log Entries and Traps 73
A CONFIGURATION RULES
Configuration Rules for Gigabit Ethernet 75
Configuration Rules for Fast Ethernet 76
Configuration Rules with Full Duplex 77

B NETWORK CONFIGURATION EXAMPLES

Simple Network Configuration Examples 80
Desktop Switch Example 80
Advanced Network Configuration Examples 81
Improving the Resilience of Your Network 81
Enhancing the Performance of Your Network 82

C IP ADDRESSING
IP Addresses 83
Simple Overview 83
Advanced Overview 84
Subnets and Subnet Masks 86
Default Gateways 88

GLOSSARY

INDEX
ABOUT THIS GUIDE

This guide describes the features of the 3Com Switch 3812 (12-port,
Managed Gigabit) and 3Com Switch 3824 (24-port, Managed Gigabit). It
outlines how to use these features to optimize the performance of your
network.

The term Switch 3812 and Switch 3824 is used when referring to the
3Com Switch 3812 (12-port, Managed Gigabit) and 3824 (24-port,
Managed Gigabit).

Refer to the Management Quick Reference Guide that accompanies your

Switch for details of the specific features your Switch supports.

This guide is intended for the system or network administrator who is

responsible for configuring, using, and managing the Switches. It
assumes a working knowledge of local area network (LAN) operations
and familiarity with communication protocols that are used to
interconnect LANs.

For detailed descriptions of the Web interface operations and the

Command Line Interface (CLI) commands that you require to manage the
Switch please refer to the Management Interface Reference Guide
supplied in HTML format on the CD-ROM that accompanies your Switch
or on the 3Com Web site.

If release notes are shipped with your product and the information there
differs from the information in this guide, follow the instructions in the
release notes.

Most user guides and release notes are available in Adobe Acrobat
Reader Portable Document Format (PDF) or HTML on the 3Com
World Wide Web site:
http://www.3com.com/
8 ABOUT THIS GUIDE

Conventions Table 1 and Table 2 list conventions that are used throughout this guide.
Table 1 Notice Icons

Icon Notice Type Description

Information note Information that describes important features or
instructions
Caution Information that alerts you to potential loss of data or
potential damage to an application, system, or device
Warning Information that alerts you to potential personal injury

Table 2 Text Conventions

Convention Description
Screen displays This typeface represents information as it appears on the
screen.
Syntax The word “syntax” means that you must evaluate the syntax
provided and then supply the appropriate values for the
placeholders that appear in angle brackets. Example:
To change your password, use the following syntax:
system password <password>
In this example, you must supply a password for <password>.
Commands The word “command” means that you must enter the
command exactly as shown and then press Return or Enter.
Commands appear in bold. Example:
To display port information, enter the following command:
bridge port detail
The words “enter” When you see the word “enter” in this guide, you must type
and “type” something, and then press Return or Enter. Do not press
Return or Enter when an instruction simply says “type.”
Keyboard key names If you must press two or more keys simultaneously, the key
names are linked with a plus sign (+). Example:
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del
Words in italics Italics are used to:
■ Emphasize a point.
■ Denote a new term at the place where it is defined in the
text.
■ Identify menu names, menu commands, and software
button names. Examples:
From the Help menu, select Contents.
Click OK.
Related Documentation 9

Related In addition to this guide, each Switch documentation set includes the
Documentation following:
■ Switch 3812 and Switch 3824 Getting Started Guide
This guide contains:
■ all the information you need to install and set up the Switch in its
default state
■ information on how to access the management software to begin
managing the Switch.
■ Switch 3812 and Switch 3824 Management Interface Reference
Guide
This guide provides detailed information about the Web interface and
Command Line Interface that enable you to manage the Switch. It is
supplied in HTML format on the CD-ROM that accompanies the
Switch.
■ Switch 3812 and Switch 3824 Management Quick Reference Guide
This guide contains:
■ a list of the features supported by the Switch.
■ a summary of the Web interface and Command Line Interface
commands for the Switch.
■ Release Notes
These notes provide information about the current software release,
including new features, modifications, and known problems.

There are other publications you may find useful, such as:
■ Documentation accompanying 3Com Network Supervisor. This is
supplied on the CD-ROM that accompanies the Switch.

Documentation Your suggestions are very important to us. They will help make our
Comments documentation more useful to you. Please e-mail comments about this
document to 3Com at:

[email protected]

Please include the following information when contacting us:

■ Document title
10 ABOUT THIS GUIDE

■ Document part number (on the title page)

■ Page number (if appropriate)

Example:
■ Switch 3812 and Switch 3824 Implementation Guide
■ Part number: DUA1740-0BAA01
■ Page 25

Please note that we can only respond to comments and questions about
3Com product documentation at this e-mail address. Questions related to
technical support or sales should be directed in the first instance to your
network supplier.

Product You can now register your Switch on the 3Com Web site:
Registration http://www.3com.com/register/

You will need your product part number (3Cxxxxx), product serial number
and date and place of purchase to register your 3Com product.

Registering your product enables you to: process Repair Requests on-line,
check the status of your requests at anytime, provides you with important
warranty information as well as activating your entitlement to additional
service benefits and receive up-to-date information on your product.
1 SWITCH FEATURES OVERVIEW

This chapter contains introductory information about the Switch 3812

and Switch 3824 management software and supported features. It covers
the following topics:
■ What is Management Software?
■ Switch Features Explained

For detailed descriptions of the Web interface operations and the

Command Line Interface (CLI) commands that you require to manage the
Switch please refer to the Management Interface Reference Guide
supplied in HTML format on the CD-ROM that accompanies your Switch.

What is Your Switch can operate in its default state. However, to make full use of
Management the features offered by the Switch, and to change and monitor the way it
Software? works, you have to access the management software that resides on the
Switch. This is known as managing the Switch.

Managing the Switch can help you to improve its efficiency and therefore
the overall performance of your network.

There are several different methods of accessing the management

software to manage the Switch. These methods are explained in
Chapter 3 of the Getting Started Guide that accompanies your Switch.

Switch Features The management software provides you with the capability to change the
Explained default state of some of the Switch features. This section provides a brief
overview of these features — their applications are explained in more
detail later in this guide.

For a list of the features supported by your Switch, please refer to the
Management Quick Reference Guide that accompanies your Switch.
12 CHAPTER 1: SWITCH FEATURES OVERVIEW

Automatic IP Your Switch can have its IP information automatically configured using a
Configuration DHCP server. Alternatively, you can manually configure the IP
information.

For more information about how the automatic IP configuration feature

works, see Chapter 9 “Using Automatic IP Configuration”.

Port Security Your Switch supports the following port security modes, which you can
set for an individual port or a range of ports:
■ No Security
Port security is disabled and all network traffic is forwarded through
the port without any restrictions.
■ Secure
All currently learnt addresses on the port are made permanent. Any
packets containing a source address not learnt on the port will be
dropped.

The maximum number of permanent addresses on the Switch is 1000.

Aggregated Links Aggregated links are connections that allow devices to communicate
using up to eight links in parallel. Aggregated links provide two benefits:
■ They can potentially increase the bandwidth of a connection.
■ They can provide redundancy — if one link is broken, the other links
share the traffic for that link.

For more information about aggregated links, see Chapter 2

“Optimizing Bandwidth”.

Auto-negotiation Auto-negotiation allows ports to auto-negotiate port speed,

duplex-mode (only at 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps) and flow control. When
auto-negotiation is enabled (default), a port “advertises” its maximum
capabilities — these capabilities are by default the parameters that
provide the highest performance supported by the port.

SFP ports do not support auto-negotiation of port speed.

Ports operating at 1000 Mbps only support full duplex mode.

Switch Features Explained 13

For details of the auto-negotiation features supported by your Switch,

please refer to the Management Quick Reference Guide that
accompanies your Switch.

Duplex
Full duplex mode allows packets to be transmitted and received
simultaneously and, in effect, doubles the potential throughput of a link.

Flow Control
All Switch ports support flow control, which is a mechanism that
minimizes packet loss during periods of congestion on the network.

Flow control is supported on ports operating in half duplex mode, and is

implemented using the IEEE Std 802.3-2002 (incorporating 802.3x) on
ports operating in full duplex mode.

For more information about auto-negotiation and port capabilities, see

Chapter 2 “Optimizing Bandwidth”.

Multicast Filtering Multicast filtering allows the Switch to forward multicast traffic to only
the endstations that are part of a predefined multicast group, rather than
broadcasting the traffic to the whole network.

The multicast filtering system supported by your Switch uses IGMP

(Internet Group Management Protocol) snooping to detect the
endstations in each multicast group to which multicast traffic should be
forwarded.

For more information about multicast filtering, see Chapter 3 “Using

Multicast Filtering”.

Spanning Tree Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP)
Protocol and Rapid are bridge-based systems that make your network more resilient to link
Spanning Tree failure and also provide protection from network loops — one of the
Protocol major causes of broadcast storms.

STP allows you to implement alternative paths for network traffic in the
event of path failure and uses a loop-detection process to:
■ Discover the efficiency of each path.
■ Enable the most efficient path.
14 CHAPTER 1: SWITCH FEATURES OVERVIEW

■ Disable the less efficient paths.

■ Enable one of the less efficient paths if the most efficient path fails.

RSTP is an enhanced version of the STP feature and is enabled by default.

RSTP can restore a network connection quicker than the legacy STP
feature. RSTP can detect if it is connected to a legacy device that only
supports IEEE 802.1D STP and will automatically downgrade to STP on
that particular port.

STP conforms to the IEEE Std 802.1D, 1998 Edition and RSTP conforms to
the IEEE Std 802.1w-2001.

For more information about STP and RSTP, see Chapter 4 “Using
Resilience Features”.

Switch Database The Switch Database is an integral part of the Switch and is used by the
Switch to determine if a packet should be forwarded, and which port
should transmit the packet if it is to be forwarded.

For more information about the Switch Database, see Chapter 5 “Using
the Switch Database”.

Traffic Prioritization Using the traffic prioritization capabilities of your Switch provides Quality
of Service (QoS) to your network through increased reliability of data
delivery. You can prioritize traffic on your network to ensure that high
priority data is transmitted with minimum delay.

For more information about traffic prioritization, see Chapter 6 “Using

Traffic Prioritization”.

RMON Remote Monitoring (RMON) is an industry standard feature for traffic

monitoring and collecting network statistics. The Switch software
continually collects statistics about the LAN segments connected to the
Switch. If you have a management workstation with an RMON
management application, the Switch can transfer these statistics to your
workstation on request or when a pre-defined threshold is exceeded.

For more information about RMON and Event Notification, see Chapter 7
“Status Monitoring and Statistics”.
Switch Features Explained 15

Broadcast Storm Broadcast Storm Control is a system that monitors the level of broadcast
Control traffic on that port. If the broadcast traffic level rises to a pre-defined
number of frames per second (threshold), the broadcast traffic on the port
is blocked until the broadcast traffic level drops below the threshold. This
system prevents the overwhelming broadcast traffic that can result from
network equipment which is faulty or configured incorrectly.

VLANs A Virtual LAN (VLAN) is a flexible group of devices that can be located
anywhere in a network, but which communicate as if they are on the
same physical segment. With VLANs, you can segment your network
without being restricted by physical connections — a limitation of
traditional network design. As an example, with VLANs you can segment
your network according to:
■ Departmental groups
■ Hierarchical groups
■ Usage groups

For more information about VLANs, see Chapter 8 “Setting Up Virtual

LANs”.

Configuration Save The Configuration Save and Restore feature allows the configuration of
and Restore your Switch to be saved as a file on a remote server, or to be restored
onto the Switch from a remote file. The configuration information is
stored in an readable ASCII text file.

All configuration information that can be set using the Switch’s

Command Line Interface is saved and restored.

You must have security management access level to be able to save and
restore the Switch configuration.

The password is stored in the backup file. If you want to restore the file
but don’t have the password you can delete the password from the file.

Important Considerations
■ 3Com recommends the Switch unit is reset to its factory default
settings before you restore a configuration onto it. You can reset the
Switch using the system control initialize CLI command or the
System > Control > Initialize Web interface operation.
16 CHAPTER 1: SWITCH FEATURES OVERVIEW

■ The configuration can only be restored onto a device which has the
same physical connections and configuration, as when the
configuration was initially saved. The restore operation will be
unsuccessful if the physical configuration of the device is different.
■ The configuration of the Switch must only be restored or saved by a
single user at a time.
■ When using the Configuration Save and Restore feature, 3Com
recommends that aggregated links are configured as either:
■ Manual aggregations with Link Aggregation Configuration
Protocol (LACP) disabled on the ports that are to be manually
placed in the aggregated link.
or
■ LACP automatic aggregations — that is, LACP enabled on all ports
and the aggregated links created automatically. The aggregated
link should be enabled and Spanning Tree Protocol enabled.
Parameters such as VLANs and Fast Start may be set up as required.
Other combinations of port settings, however, are not recommended
as Configuration Restore will only perform a “best effort” restore of
the configuration. For example, LACP automatic aggregations with
manually defined ports are restored as manual aggregations with
manual ports. LACP automatic aggregations with automatic ports
where the aggregated link is disabled and Spanning Tree Protocol is
disabled are restored as manual aggregations with the aggregated link
disabled.
For further information about LACP, see Chapter 2 “Optimizing
Bandwidth”.
■ When restoring a configuration onto a unit over an aggregated link,
communication with that unit may be lost because the restore
operation disables the aggregated link ports. Communication over the
aggregated links is re-established when the restore operation has
been completed.

For detailed descriptions of the Configuration Save and Restore Web

interface operations and Command Line Interface (CLI) commands, please
refer to the Management Interface Reference Guide supplied in HTML
format on the CD-ROM that accompanies your Switch.
2 OPTIMIZING BANDWIDTH

There are many ways you can optimize the bandwidth on your network
and improve network performance. If you utilize certain Switch features
you can provide the following benefits to your network and end users:

■ Increased bandwidth
■ Quicker connections
■ Faster transfer of data
■ Minimized data errors
■ Reduced network downtime

For detailed descriptions of the Web interface operations and the

Command Line Interface (CLI) commands that you require to manage the
Switch please refer to the Management Interface Reference Guide
supplied in HTML format on the CD-ROM that accompanies your Switch.

Port Features The default state for all the features detailed below provides the best
configuration for most users. In normal operation, you do not need to
alter the Switch from its default state. However, under certain conditions
you may wish to alter the default state of these ports, for example, if you
are connecting to old equipment that does not comply with the IEEE
802.3x standard.

Duplex Full duplex allows packets to be transmitted and received simultaneously

and, in effect, doubles the potential throughput of a link. Half duplex
only allows packets to be transmitted or received at any one time.

To communicate effectively, both devices at either end of a link must use

the same duplex mode. If the devices at either end of a link support
auto-negotiation, this is done automatically. If the devices at either end of
18 CHAPTER 2: OPTIMIZING BANDWIDTH

a link do not support auto-negotiation, both ends must be manually set

to full duplex or half duplex accordingly.

Ports operating at 1000 Mbps support full duplex mode only.

Flow Control All Switch ports support flow control, which is a mechanism that prevents
packet loss during periods of congestion on the network. Packet loss is
caused by one or more devices sending traffic to an already overloaded
port on the Switch. Flow control prevents packet loss by inhibiting the
transmitting port from generating more packets until the period of
congestion ends.

Flow control is implemented using the IEEE Std 802.3-2002

(incorporating 802.3x) for ports operating in full duplex mode, and
Intelligent Flow Management (IFM) for ports operating in half duplex
mode.

Auto-negotiation Auto-negotiation allows ports to automatically determine the best port

speed, duplex-mode (only at 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps) and flow control.
When auto-negotiation is enabled (default), a port “advertises” its
maximum capabilities — these capabilities are by default the parameters
that provide the highest performance supported by the port.

You can modify the capabilities that a port “advertises” on a per port
basis, dependant on the type of port.

You can disable auto-negotiation for the whole Switch, or per port. You
can also modify the capabilities that a port “advertises” on a per port
basis, dependant on the type of port.

SFP ports do not support auto-negotiation of port speed.

Ports operating at 1000 Mbps support full duplex mode only.

If auto-negotiation is disabled, the auto-MDIX feature does not operate

on the ports. Therefore the correct cables, that is, cross-over or
straight-through need to be used. For more information, see the Getting
Started Guide that accompanies your Switch.

Ports at both ends of the link should be set to auto-negotiate.

Aggregated Links 19

Aggregated Links Aggregated links are connections that allow devices to communicate
using up to eight member links in parallel. Aggregated links provide the
following benefits:
■ They can potentially increase the bandwidth of a connection. The
capacity of the multiple links is combined into one logical link.
■ They can provide redundancy — if one link is broken, the other links
share the traffic for that link.

Figure 1 shows two Switches connected using an aggregated link

containing four member links. If all ports on both Switch units are
configured as 1000BASE-TX and they are operating in full duplex, the
potential maximum bandwidth of the connection is 8 Gbps.

Figure 1 Switch units connected using an aggregated link

.

How 802.3ad Link Your Switch supports IEEE Std 802.3-2002 (incorporating 802.3ad)
Aggregation aggregated links which use the Link Aggregation Control Protocol
Operates (LACP). LACP provides automatic, point-to-point redundancy between
two devices (switch-to-switch or switch-to-server) that have full duplex
connections operating at the same speed.

By default, LACP is disabled on all Switch ports.

If a member link in an aggregated link fails, the traffic using that link is
dynamically reassigned to the remaining member links in the aggregated
link. Figure 2 shows the simplest case: two member links, that is the
physical links, form an aggregated link. In this example, if link 1 fails, the
data flow between X and B is remapped to physical link 2. The
re-mapping occurs as soon as the Switch detects that a member link has
20 CHAPTER 2: OPTIMIZING BANDWIDTH

failed — almost instantaneously. As a result, aggregated link

configurations are extremely resilient and fault-tolerant.

Figure 2 Dynamic Reassignment of Traffic Flows

The key benefits of 802.3ad link aggregation are:

■ Automatic configuration — network management does not need to

be used to manually aggregate links.
■ Rapid configuration and reconfiguration — approximately one to
three seconds.
■ Compatibility — non-802.3ad devices can interoperate with 802.3ad
enabled devices. However, you will need to manually configure the
aggregated links as LACP will not be able to automatically detect and
form an aggregation with a non-802.3ad device.
■ The operation of 802.3ad can be configured and managed via
network management.

Implementing LACP can be enabled or disabled on a per port basis. You can implement
802.3ad Aggregated 802.3ad aggregated links in two ways:
Links
■ Manual Aggregations — You can manually add and remove ports to
and from an aggregated link via Web commands. However, if a port
has LACP enabled, and if a more appropriate or correct automatic
membership is detected by LACP, it will override the manual
configuration.
For example, in Figure 3, if a port on Switch C is physically connected
to Switch B, but you manually configure the port on Switch C to be a
Aggregated Links 21

member of an aggregated link for Switch A in error, LACP (if it is

enabled) will detect this and place the port in the aggregated link for
Switch B, thus overriding the manual configuration.

Figure 3 Aggregated Link — Example

■ LACP Automatic Aggregations — If LACP detects at least two active

ports sharing the same partner device, and if no matching
pre-configured aggregated links exist, LACP will automatically assign a
free un-configured aggregated link to form an aggregated link with
the partner device.
If you have an existing single port connection between two devices,
this automatic behavior allows quick and easy addition of extra
bandwidth by simply adding an extra physical link between the units.

The Spanning Tree costs for a port running LACP is the cost assigned for
an aggregated link running at that speed. As required by the IEEE Std
802.3-2002 (incorporating 802.3ad), no changes in cost are made
according to the number of member links in the aggregated link.

Aggregated Links and ■ When any port is assigned to an aggregated link (either manually or
Your Switch via LACP) it will adopt the configuration settings of the aggregated
link. When a port leaves an aggregated link its original configuration
settings are restored.
■ A maximum of six active aggregations can be created. A maximum of
up to eight ports may be added manually to any individual
aggregation, or via LACP. There are however a few points to consider:
22 CHAPTER 2: OPTIMIZING BANDWIDTH

■ The Switch only supports a maximum of eight active ports in any

individual aggregation.
■ If multiple links are connected between a unit and more than six
other devices as shown in Figure 4, only six of the devices will be
assigned to aggregated links. The remaining devices will each only
have one link made active, that is, passing data. All other links will
be made inactive to prevent loops occurring.
LACP detects if one of the existing six aggregated links is removed
and will then automatically assign one of the remaining devices to
the aggregated link that has become free.

Figure 4 How LACP works on a Switch with multiple aggregated links

Switch H

X
Switch A

AL 1
AL 4
AL 2 AL 3
AL 5 Switch B
AL 6

Switch C

Switch D

Switch E

Switch F

Switch G

■ When multiple links of different speed connect two devices only the
highest speed links will be aggregated.
■ A LinkUp / LinkDown trap will only be sent for individual links. The
Traps will not be sent for an aggregation.

When setting up an aggregated link, note that:

■ The ports at both ends of a member link must be configured as
members of an aggregated link, if you are manually configuring
aggregated links.
■ A member link port can only belong to one aggregated link.
Aggregated Links 23

■ The member link ports can be mixed media, that is fiber and/or
twisted pair ports within the same aggregated link.
■ The member link ports must have the same configuration.
■ Member links must retain the same groupings at both ends of an
aggregated link. For example, the configuration in Figure 5 will not
work as Switch A has one aggregated link defined whose member
links are then split between two aggregated links defined on Switches
B and C. Note that this illegal configuration could not occur if LACP is
enabled.

Figure 5 An illegal aggregated link configuration

To make this configuration work you need to have two aggregated links
defined on Switch A, one containing the member links for Switch B and
one containing the member links for Switch C.

When using an aggregated link, note that:

■ To gather statistics about an aggregated link, you must add together

the statistics for each port in the aggregated link.
■ If you wish to disable a single member link of an aggregated link, you
must first physically remove the connection to ensure that you do not
lose any traffic, before you disable both ends of the member link
separately. If you do this, the traffic destined for that link is distributed
to the other links in the aggregated link.
If you do not remove the connection and only disable one end of the
member link port, traffic is still forwarded to that port by the
aggregated link port at the other end. This means that a significant
amount of traffic may be lost.
24 CHAPTER 2: OPTIMIZING BANDWIDTH

■ Before removing an entire aggregated link, you must disable all the
aggregated link ports or disconnect all the links, except one — if you
do not, a loop may be created.
■ When manually creating an aggregated link between two devices, the
ports in the aggregated link must not be physically connected
together until the aggregated link has been correctly configured at
both ends of the link. Failure to configure the aggregated link at both
ends before physically connecting the ports can result in a number of
serious network issues such as lost packets and network loops.

Traffic Distribution and Link Failure on Aggregated Links

To maximize throughput, all traffic is distributed across the individual links

that make up an aggregated link. Therefore, when a packet is made
available for transmission down an aggregated link, a hardware-based
traffic distribution mechanism determines which particular port in the link
should be used. The traffic is distributed among the member links as
efficiently as possible.

To avoid the potential problem of out-of-sequence packets (or “packet

re-ordering”), the Switch ensures that all the conversations between a
given pair of endstations will pass through the same port in the
aggregated link. Single-to-multiple endstation conversations, on the
other hand, may still take place over different ports.

If the link state on any of the ports in an aggregated link becomes

inactive due to link failure, then the Switch will automatically redirect the
aggregated link traffic to the remaining ports. Aggregated links therefore
provide built-in resilience for your network.

The Switch also has a mechanism to prevent the possible occurrence of

packet re-ordering when a link recovers too soon after a failure.

Aggregated Link — The example shown in Figure 6 illustrates an 8 Gbps aggregated link
Manual between two Switch units, (that is, each port is operating at 1000 Mbps,
Configuration full duplex).
Example
Aggregated Links 25

Figure 6 An 8 Gbps aggregated link between two Switch units

Switch

8 Gbps Aggregated Link

Switch

To manually set up this configuration:

1 Prepare ports 2, 4, 6 and 8 on the upper Switch for aggregated links. To
do this:
a Check that the ports have an identical configuration using your
preferred management interface.
b Add the ports 2, 4, 6 and 8 on the specified unit to the aggregated
link.
2 Prepare ports 2, 4, 6 and 8 on the lower Switch for aggregated links. To
do this:
a Check that the ports have an identical configuration using your
preferred management interface.
b Add the ports 2, 4, 6 and 8 on the specified unit to the aggregated
link.
3 Connect port 2 on the upper Switch to port 2 on the lower Switch.
4 Connect port 4 on the upper Switch to port 4 on the lower Switch.
5 Connect port 6 on the upper Switch to port 6 on the lower Switch.
6 Connect port 8 on the upper Switch to port 8 on the lower Switch.
26 CHAPTER 2: OPTIMIZING BANDWIDTH
3 USING MULTICAST FILTERING

Multicast filtering improves the performance of networks that carry

multicast traffic.

This chapter explains multicasts, multicast filtering, and how multicast

filtering can be implemented on your Switch. It covers the following
topics:
■ What is an IP Multicast?
■ Multicast Filtering
■ IGMP Multicast Filtering

For detailed descriptions of the Web interface operations and the

Command Line Interface (CLI) commands that you require to manage the
Switch please refer to the Management Interface Reference Guide
supplied in HTML format on the CD-ROM that accompanies your Switch.

What is an IP A multicast is a packet that is intended for “one-to-many” and “many-

Multicast? to-many” communication. Users explicitly request to participate in the
communication by joining an endstation to a specific multicast group. If
the network is set up correctly, a multicast can only be sent to an
endstation or a subset of endstations in a LAN, or VLAN, that belong to
the relevant multicast group.

Multicast group members can be distributed across multiple

subnetworks; thus, multicast transmissions can occur within a campus
LAN or over a WAN. In addition, networks that support IP multicast send
only one copy of the desired information across the network until the
delivery path that reaches group members diverges. It is only at these
points that multicast packets are replicated and forwarded, which makes
efficient use of network bandwidth.
28 CHAPTER 3: USING MULTICAST FILTERING

A multicast packet is identified by the presence of a multicast group

address in the destination address field of the packet’s IP header.

Benefits of Multicast The benefits of using IP multicast are that it:

■ Enables the simultaneous delivery of information to many receivers in
the most efficient, logical way.
■ Reduces the load on the source (for example, a server) because it does
not have to produce multiple copies of the same data.
■ Makes efficient use of network bandwidth and scales well as the
number of participants or collaborators expands.
■ Works with other IP protocols and services, such as Quality of Service
(QoS).

There are situations where a multicast approach is more logical and

efficient than a unicast approach. Application examples include distance
learning, transmitting stock quotes to brokers, and collaborative
computing.

A typical use of multicasts is in video-conferencing, where high volumes

of traffic need to be sent to several endstations simultaneously, but where
broadcasting that traffic to all endstations would seriously reduce
network performance.

Multicast Filtering Multicast filtering is the process that ensures that endstations only receive
multicast traffic if they register to join specific multicast groups. With
multicast filtering, network devices only forward multicast traffic to the
ports that are connected to registered endstations.

Figure 7 shows how a network behaves without multicast filtering and

with multicast filtering.
Multicast Filtering 29

Figure 7 The effect of multicast filtering

Multicast Filtering Your Switch provides automatic multicast filtering support using IGMP
and Your Switch (Internet Group Management Protocol) Snooping. It also supports IGMP
query mode.

Snooping Mode
Snooping Mode allows your Switch to forward multicast packets only to
the appropriate ports. The Switch “snoops” on exchanges between
endstations and an IGMP device, typically a router, to find out the ports
that wish to join a multicast group and then sets its filters accordingly

Query Mode
Query mode allows the Switch to function as the Querier if it has the
lowest IP address in the subnetwork to which it belongs.
IGMP querying is disabled by default on the Switch 3812 and
Switch 3824. This helps prevent interoperability issues with core products
that may not follow the lowest IP address election method.

You can enable or disable IGMP query mode for the Switch using the
Bridge > Multicast filter > IGMP > Querymode operation on the Web
Interface.
30 CHAPTER 3: USING MULTICAST FILTERING

You would enable query mode if you wish to run multicast sessions in a
network that does not contain any IGMP routers (or queriers). This
command will configure the Switch to automatically negotiate with
compatible devices on VLAN 1 to become the querier.

The Switch 3812 and Switch 3824 are compatible with any device that
conforms to the IGMP v2 protocol. The Switch does not support IGMP v3.
If you have an IGMP v3 network, you should disable IGMP snooping for
the Switch using the snoopMode command on the Web Interface .

IGMP Multicast IGMP is the system that all IP-supporting network devices use to register
Filtering endstations with multicast groups. It can be used on all LANs and VLANs
that contain a multicast capable IP router and on other network devices
that support IP.

IGMP multicast filtering works as follows:

1 The IP router (or querier) periodically sends query packets to all the
endstations in the LANs or VLANs that are connected to it.
If your network has more than one IP router, then the one with the
lowest IP address becomes the querier. The Switch can be the IGMP
querier and will become so if its own IP address is lower than that of any
other IGMP queriers connected to the LAN or VLAN. However, as the
Switch only has an IP address on its default VLAN, the Switch will only
ever query on the default VLAN (VLAN1). Therefore, if there are no other
queriers on other VLANs, the IP multicast traffic will not be forwarded on
them.
2 When an IP endstation receives a query packet, it sends a report packet
back that identifies the multicast group that the endstation would like to
join.
3 When the report packet arrives at a port on a Switch with IGMP multicast
learning enabled, the Switch learns that the port is to forward traffic for
the multicast group and then forwards the packet to the router.
4 When the router receives the report packet, it registers that the LAN or
VLAN requires traffic for the multicast groups.
5 When the router forwards traffic for the multicast group to the LAN or
VLAN, the Switch units only forward the traffic to ports that received a
report packet.
IGMP Multicast Filtering 31

Enabling IGMP Multicast Learning

You can enable or disable multicast learning and IGMP querying using the
snoopMode command on the Web interface. For more information
about enabling IGMP multicast learning, please refer to the Management
Interface Reference Guide supplied on your Switch CD-ROM.

If IGMP multicast learning is not enabled then IP multicast traffic is always

forwarded, that is, it floods the network.

For information about configuring IGMP functionality on an endstation,

refer to the user documentation supplied with your endstation or the
endstation’s Network Interface Card (NIC).
32 CHAPTER 3: USING MULTICAST FILTERING
4 USING RESILIENCE FEATURES

Setting up resilience on your network helps protect critical links against

failure, protects against network loops, and reduces network downtime
to a minimum.

This chapter explains the features supported by the Switch that provide
resilience for your network. It covers the following topics:

■ Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)

■ Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) — an enhanced version of the
STP feature.

For detailed descriptions of the Web interface operations and the

Command Line Interface (CLI) commands that you require to manage the
Switch please refer to the Management Interface Reference Guide
supplied in HTML format on the CD-ROM that accompanies your Switch.
34 CHAPTER 4: USING RESILIENCE FEATURES

Resilience Feature Table 3 lists the key differences between each feature, so you can
Overview evaluate the benefits of each to determine which feature is most suitable
for your network.

Table 3 Spanning Tree Protocols — Key Differences

Spanning Tree Protocol Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol

STP is disabled by default. User enables RSTP is enabled by default.
STP on each Switch.
Automatic configuration. Automatic configuration.
Up to 30 second delay on link failure to Within 5 seconds restores a network
restoring a network connection. connection.

3Com recommends that you use the Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol
feature (default enabled) to provide optimum performance for your
network and ease of use.

The Switch also supports aggregated links which increase bandwidth and
also provide resilience against individual link failure. Aggregated links will
operate with STP enabled. For more information, see Aggregated Links
on page 19.

Spanning Tree The Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) makes your network more resilient to
Protocol (STP) link failure and also provides a protection from loops — one of the major
causes of broadcast storms. STP is enabled by default on your Switch.

To be fully effective, STP must be enabled on all Switches in your

network.

RSTP provides the same functionality as STP. For details on how the two
systems differ, see “How RSTP Differs to STP” on page 39.

The following sections explain more about STP and the protocol features
supported by your Switch. They cover the following topics:
■ What is STP?
■ How STP Works
■ Using STP on a Network with Multiple VLANs
What is STP? 35

The protocol is a part of the IEEE Std 802.1D, 1998 Edition bridge
specification. To explain STP more effectively, your Switch will be referred
to as a bridge.

Rapid Spanning Tree The Rapid Spanning Tree (RSTP) is an enhanced Spanning Tree feature.
Protocol (RSTP) RSTP implements the Spanning Tree Algorithm and Protocol, as defined in
the IEEE Std 802.1w-2001.

Some of the benefits of RSTP are:

■ Faster determination of the Active Spanning Tree topology throughout

a bridged network.
■ Support for bridges with more than 256 ports.
■ Support for the Fast-Forwarding configuration of edge ports provided
by the 'Fast Start' feature. Fast Start allows a port that is connected to
an endstation to begin forwarding traffic after only 4 seconds. During
this 4 seconds RSTP (or STP) will detect any misconfiguration that may
cause a temporary loop and react accordingly.
■ Easy deployment throughout a legacy network, through backward
compatibility:
■ it will default to sending 802.1D style BPDU's on a port if it receives
packets of this format.
■ it is possible for some ports on a Switch to operate in RSTP
(802.1w) mode, and other ports, for example those connected to a
legacy Switch, to operate in STP (802.1D) mode.
■ you have an option to force your Switch to use the legacy 802.1D
version of Spanning Tree, if required.

What is STP? STP (802.1D) is a bridge-based system that allows you to implement
parallel paths for network traffic and uses a loop-detection process to:
■ Find and disable the less efficient paths (that is, the paths that have a
lower bandwidth).
■ Enable one of the less efficient paths if the most efficient path fails.

RSTP provides the same functionality as STP. For details on how the two
systems differ, see “How RSTP Differs to STP” on page 39.
36 CHAPTER 4: USING RESILIENCE FEATURES

As an example, Figure 8 shows a network containing three LAN segments

separated by three bridges. With this configuration, each segment can
communicate with the others using two paths. Without STP enabled, this
configuration creates loops that cause the network to overload.

Figure 8 A network configuration that creates loops

Figure 9 shows the result of enabling STP on the bridges in the

configuration. STP detects the duplicate paths and prevents, or blocks,
one of them from forwarding traffic, so this configuration will work
satisfactorily. STP has determined that traffic from LAN segment 2 to LAN
segment 1 can only flow through Bridges C and A, because, for example,
this path has a greater bandwidth and is therefore more efficient.

Figure 9 Traffic flowing through Bridges C and A

How STP Works 37

If a link failure is detected, as shown in Figure 10, the STP process

reconfigures the network so that traffic from LAN segment 2 flows
through Bridge B.

Figure 10 Traffic flowing through Bridge B

STP determines which is the most efficient path between each bridged
segment and a specifically assigned reference point on the network. Once
the most efficient path has been determined, all other paths are blocked.
Therefore, in Figure 8, Figure 9, and Figure 10, STP initially determined
that the path through Bridge C was the most efficient, and so blocked
the path through Bridge B. After the failure of Bridge C, STP re-evaluated
the situation and opened the path through Bridge B.

How STP Works When enabled, STP determines the most appropriate path for traffic
through a network. It does this as outlined in the sections below.

STP Requirements Before it can configure the network, the STP system requires:
■ Communication between all the bridges. This communication is
carried out using Bridge Protocol Data Units (BPDUs), which are
transmitted in packets with a known multicast address.
■ Each bridge to have a Bridge Identifier. This specifies which bridge acts
as the central reference point, or Root Bridge, for the STP system —
the lower the Bridge Identifier, the more likely the bridge is to become
the Root Bridge. The Bridge Identifier is calculated using the MAC
address of the bridge and a priority defined for the bridge. The default
priority of your Switch is 32768.
38 CHAPTER 4: USING RESILIENCE FEATURES

■ Each port to have a cost. This specifies the efficiency of each link,
usually determined by the bandwidth of the link — the higher the
cost, the less efficient the link. Table 4 shows the default port costs for
a Switch.
Table 4 Default port costs

Path Cost 802.1D, Path Cost

Port Speed Link Type 1998 Edition 802.1w-2001
10 Mbps Half Duplex 100 2,000,000
Full Duplex 95 1,999,999
Aggregated Link 90 1,000,000
100 Mbps Half Duplex 19 200,000
Full Duplex 18 199,999
Aggregated Link 15 100,000
1000 Mbps Full Duplex 4 20,000
Aggregated Link 3 10,000

STP Calculation The first stage in the STP process is the calculation stage. During this
stage, each bridge on the network transmits BPDUs that allow the system
to work out:
■ The identity of the bridge that is to be the Root Bridge. The Root
Bridge is the central reference point from which the network is
configured.
■ The Root Path Costs for each bridge — that is, the cost of the paths
from each bridge to the Root Bridge.
■ The identity of the port on each bridge that is to be the Root Port.
The Root Port is the one that is connected to the Root Bridge using
the most efficient path, that is, the one that has the lowest Root
Path Cost. Note that the Root Bridge does not have a Root Port.
■ The identity of the bridge that is to be the Designated Bridge of
each LAN segment. The Designated Bridge is the one that has the
lowest Root Path Cost from that segment. Note that if several
bridges have the same Root Path Cost, the one with the lowest
Bridge Identifier becomes the Designated Bridge.
All traffic destined to pass in the direction of the Root Bridge flows
through the Designated Bridge. The port on this bridge that connects
to the segment is called the Designated Bridge Port.

STP Configuration After all the bridges on the network have agreed on the identity of the
Root Bridge, and have established the other relevant parameters, each
How STP Works 39

bridge is configured to forward traffic only between its Root Port and the
Designated Bridge Ports for the respective network segments. All other
ports are blocked, which means that they are prevented from receiving or
forwarding traffic.

STP Reconfiguration Once the network topology is stable, all the bridges listen for Hello BPDUs
transmitted from the Root Bridge at regular intervals. If a bridge does not
receive a Hello BPDU after a certain interval (the Max Age time), the
bridge assumes that the Root Bridge, or a link between itself and the
Root Bridge, has gone down. The bridge then reconfigures the network
to cater for the change. If you have configured an SNMP trap destination,
when the topology of your network changes, the first bridge to detect
the change sends out an SNMP trap.

CAUTION: Network loops can occur if aggregated links are manually

configured incorrectly, that is, the physical connections do not match the
assignment of ports to an aggregated link. RSTP and STP may not detect
these loops. So that RSTP and STP can detect all network loops you must
ensure that all aggregated links are configured correctly.

How RSTP Differs to RSTP works in a similar way to STP, but it includes additional information
STP in the BPDUs. This information allows each bridge to confirm that it has
taken action to prevent loops from forming when it wants to enable a
link to a neighbouring bridge. This allows adjacent bridges connected via
point-to-point links to enable a link without having to wait to ensure all
other bridges in the network have had time to react to the change.

So the main benefit of RSTP is that the configuration decision is made

locally rather than network-wide which is why RSTP can carry out
automatic configuration and restore a link faster than STP.

STP Example Figure 11 shows a LAN that has STP enabled. The LAN has three
segments, and each segment is connected using two possible links.
40 CHAPTER 4: USING RESILIENCE FEATURES

Figure 11 Port costs in a network

■ Bridge A has the lowest Bridge Identifier in the network, and has
therefore been selected as the Root Bridge.
■ Because Bridge A is the Root Bridge, it is also the Designated Bridge
for LAN segment 1. Port 1 on Bridge A is therefore selected as the
Designated Bridge Port for LAN Segment 1.
■ Port 1 of Bridges B, C, X and Y have been defined as Root Ports
because they are the nearest to the Root Bridge and therefore have
the most efficient path.
■ Bridges B and X offer the same Root Path Cost for LAN segment 2,
however, Bridge B has been selected as the Designated Bridge for the
segment because it has a lower Bridge Identifier. Port 2 on Bridge B is
therefore selected as the Designated Bridge Port for LAN Segment 2.
How STP Works 41

■ Bridge C has been selected as the Designated Bridge for LAN segment
3, because it offers the lowest Root Path Cost for LAN Segment 3:
■ the route through Bridges C and B costs 200 (C to B=100, B to
A=100)
■ the route through Bridges Y and B costs 300 (Y to B=200, B to
A=100).
Port 2 on Bridge C is therefore selected as the Designated Bridge Port
for LAN Segment 3.

STP Configurations Figure 12 shows three possible STP configurations using SuperStack 3
Switch units.
■ Configuration 1 — Redundancy for Backbone Link
In this configuration, the Switches both have STP enabled and are
connected by two links. STP discovers a duplicate path and blocks one
of the links. If the enabled link breaks, the disabled link becomes
re-enabled, therefore maintaining connectivity.
■ Configuration 2 — Redundancy through Meshed Backbone
In this configuration, four Switch units are connected in a way that
creates multiple paths between each one. STP discovers the duplicate
paths and blocks two of the links. If an enabled link breaks, one of the
disabled links becomes re-enabled, therefore maintaining connectivity.
■ Configuration 3 — Redundancy for Cabling Error
In this configuration, a Switch has STP enabled and is accidentally
connected to a hub using two links. STP discovers a duplicate path
and blocks one of the links, therefore avoiding a loop.
42 CHAPTER 4: USING RESILIENCE FEATURES

Figure 12 STP configurations

Using STP on a Network with Multiple VLANs 43

Using STP on a The IEEE Std 802.1D, 1998 Edition does not take into account VLANs
Network with when it calculates STP information — the calculations are only performed
Multiple VLANs on the basis of physical connections. For this reason, some network
configurations can result in VLANs being subdivided into a number of
isolated sections by the STP system. Therefore, you must ensure that any
VLAN configuration on your network takes into account the expected STP
topology and alternative topologies that may result from link failures.

For example, Figure 13 shows a network containing VLANs 1 and 2. They

are connected using the 802.1Q-tagged link between Switch B and
Switch C. By default, this link has a path cost of 100 and is automatically
blocked because the other Switch-to-Switch connections have a path cost
of 36 (18+18). This means that both VLANs are now subdivided — VLAN
1 on Switch units A and B cannot communicate with VLAN 1 on Switch
C, and VLAN 2 on Switch units A and C cannot communicate with VLAN
2 on Switch B.

Figure 13 Configuration that separates VLANs

To avoid any VLAN subdivision, it is recommended that all inter-Switch

connections are made members of all available 802.1Q VLANs to ensure
connectivity at all times. For example, the connections between Switches
A and B, and between Switches A and C should be 802.1Q tagged and
carrying VLANs 1 and 2 to ensure connectivity.

For more information about VLAN Tagging, see Chapter 8 “Setting Up

Virtual LANs”.
44 CHAPTER 4: USING RESILIENCE FEATURES
5 USING THE SWITCH DATABASE

What is the Switch The Switch Database is used by the Switch to determine where a packet
Database? should be forwarded to, and which port should transmit the packet if it is
to be forwarded.

The database contains a list of entries — each entry contains three items:

■ MAC (Ethernet) address information of the endstation that sends

packets to the Switch.
■ Port identifier, that is the port attached to the endstation that is
sending the packet.
■ VLAN ID of the VLAN to which the endstation belongs.

For details of the number of addresses supported by your Switch

database, please refer to Chapter 1 of the Getting Started Guide that
accompanies your Switch.

For detailed descriptions of the Web interface operations and the

Command Line Interface (CLI) commands that you require to manage the
Switch please refer to the Management Interface Reference Guide
supplied in HTML format on the CD-ROM that accompanies your Switch.

How Switch Entries are added to the Switch Database in one of two ways:
Database Entries
Get Added ■ The Switch can learn entries. The Switch updates its database with the
source MAC address of the endstation that sent the packet, the VLAN
ID, and the port identifier on which the packet is received.
■ You can enter and update entries using the management interface via
the Bridge > Address Database Web interface operation, or an SNMP
Network Manager.
46 CHAPTER 5: USING THE SWITCH DATABASE

Switch Database Databases entries can have three states:

Entry States ■ Learned — The Switch has placed the entry into the Switch Database
when a packet was received from an endstation. Note that:
■ Learned entries are removed (aged out) from the Switch Database
if the Switch does not receive further packets from that endstation
within a certain period of time (the aging time). This prevents the
Switch Database from becoming full with obsolete entries by
ensuring that when an endstation is removed from the network, its
entry is also removed from the database.
■ Learned entries are removed from the Switch Database if the
Switch is reset or powered-down.
■ Non-aging learned — If the aging time is set to 0 seconds, all learned
entries in the Switch Database become non-aging learned entries. This
means that they are not aged out, but they are still removed from the
database if the Switch is reset or powered-down.
■ Permanent — The entry has been placed into the Switch Database
using the management interface. Permanent entries are not removed
from the Switch Database unless they are removed using the Switch
management interface via the bridge > addressDatabase > remove
Web operation or the Switch is initialized.
6 USING TRAFFIC PRIORITIZATION

Using the traffic prioritization capabilities of your Switch provides Quality

of Service (QoS) to your network through increased reliability of data
delivery. You can prioritize traffic on your network to ensure that high
priority data is transmitted with minimum delay.

Traffic can be controlled by a set of rules to obtain the required Quality of

Service for your network. The rules define different types of traffic and
specify how each type should be treated as it passes through the Switch,
for example, prioritized or discarded. Being able to define exactly how
you want your Switch to treat selected applications, devices, users and
types of traffic allows you to have more control over your network.

There are two different categories of rules:

■ Application-based rules — describe how to deal with traffic for a
specific application, for example, Netmeeting or Lotus Notes.
■ Device-based rules — describe how to deal with traffic that flows to
and from specific devices, for example, servers or server farms.

This chapter explains more about traffic prioritization.

■ What is Traffic Prioritization?
■ How Traffic Prioritization Works
■ Important QoS Considerations
■ Default QoS Configurations

Basic traffic prioritization is the default level of QoS supported by the

Switch 3812 and Switch 3824.

For a list of the features supported by your Switch, please refer to the
Management Quick Reference Guide that accompanies your Switch.
48 CHAPTER 6: USING TRAFFIC PRIORITIZATION

For detailed descriptions of the Command Line Interface (CLI) commands

that you require to manage the Switch please refer to the Management
Interface Reference Guide supplied in HTML format on the CD-ROM that
accompanies your Switch.

What is Traffic Today’s application traffic consists of three common types of data:
Prioritization? ■ Time critical data such as video and voice.
■ Business critical data such as database transactions and online
transactions.
■ Opportunistic data such as web browsing, email and file transfers.

When these different types of data compete for the same bandwidth, a
network can quickly become overloaded, resulting in slow response times
(long latency), and application time-outs. Traffic prioritization is a
mechanism that allows you to prioritize data so that time-sensitive and
system-critical data can be transferred smoothly and with minimal delay
over a network.

The benefits of using traffic prioritization are:

■ You can control a wide variety of traffic and manage congestion on
your network, therefore improving performance.
■ You can assign priorities to traffic, for example, set higher priorities to
time-critical or business-critical applications.
■ You can provide predictable throughput for multimedia applications
such as video conferencing or voice over IP platforms like the 3Com
NBX, as well as minimizing traffic delay and jitter.
■ You can improve network performance as the amount of traffic
grows, which also reduces the need to constantly add bandwidth to
the network, therefore saving cost.

How Traffic Traffic prioritization uses the eight traffic queues that are present in your
Prioritization Works Switch to ensure that high priority traffic is forwarded on a different
queue from lower priority traffic. This is what provides Quality of Service
(QoS) to your network.
How Traffic Prioritization Works 49

Traffic prioritization in your Switch may be applied dependent upon

following factor:
■ The level of service requested by an end-station — the
transmitting end-station sets the priority of each stream of traffic.
Received traffic at the Switch is forwarded through the appropriate
queue depending on its priority level for onward transmission across
the network.

A QoS network can differentiate between time critical data, business

critical data and opportunistic data (such as email, File Transfer Protocol
(FTP) and Web traffic). A QoS network also has the ability to stop
unauthorized usage of the network, such as online gaming.

To achieve quality of service the Switch will use four processes:

■ Traffic Classification — a QoS network examines the traffic to
identify which application or device generated the traffic.
■ Traffic Marking — after traffic is identified, it is Marked so that other
network devices can identify the data and give it the correct level of
service.
■ Traffic Re-marking — if a traffic packet enters the Switch with a
priority marking requesting an unacceptable level of service, the
Switch can Re-mark it with a different priority value to downgrade its
level of service.
■ Traffic Prioritization — once the network can differentiate types of
traffic, for example, a telephone conversation from Web surfing,
prioritization can ensure that a large download from the Internet does
not disrupt the telephone conversation.

The Switch is configured to handle priority tagged packets and NBX

phone traffic.

Traffic Classification To determine the service level to be applied to each incoming traffic type,
each packet or frame must first be classified. Traffic classification is the
means of identifying which application, device or user generated the
traffic.

The Switch employs several methods of classifying (identifying) traffic.

These can be based on any combination of fields in the first 64 bytes of
the packet, and at different levels of the 7 layer OSI model as shown in
Table 5.
50 CHAPTER 6: USING TRAFFIC PRIORITIZATION

Table 5 Attributes on which incoming traffic can be classified (identified)

OSI Layer and Protocols Summary of Protocols

Layer 2 Chatty protocols such as AppleTalk and IPX, used
by a small number of older devices, can cause
■ IEEE 802.1D priority
traffic delays. Identifying and prioritizing data
■ EtherType based on these protocols can reduce delays.
AppleTalk can be identified by its EtherType of
0x809B, and IPX can be identified by EtherType
0x8137.
Layer 3 Many applications are identified by their Source
IP address, or IP protocol. Because servers are
■ Destination IP address
sometimes dedicated to single applications, such
■ Source IP address as email, the Source IP address or protocol in a
packet can identify which application generated
■ IP protocols: (ICMP, IGMP,
the packet.
RSVP, UDP, TCP, etc)
As well as being a traffic marking mechanism,
■ DiffServ code point (DSCP)
the DSCP field in the IP header can also be used
to classify traffic.
Layer 4 Many applications use certain TCP or UDP
sockets to communicate. By examining the
■ UDP / TCP Source and
socket number in the IP packet, the intelligent
Destination ports for IP
network can determine what type of application
applications
generated the packet. This is also known as Layer
4 switching.

Traffic Marking After traffic has been identified through classification, it must be Marked
to ensure that other devices such as Layer 2 switches or routers on the
network know how to prioritize the application, device or user that
generated it. The Switch uses two of the industry-standard methods of
marking network traffic:
■ IEEE 802.1D — a layer 2 marking scheme.
■ Differentiated Services (DiffServ) — a layer 3 marking scheme.

IEEE 802.1D Traffic Marking

The IEEE Std 802.1D, 1998 Edition marking scheme is an enhancement to
the IEEE Std 802.1D to enable Quality of Service in the LAN. Traffic service
levels are defined in the IEEE 802.1Q 4-byte tag, which is used to carry
VLAN identification as well as IEEE 802.1p priority information. The 4 byte
tag immediately follows the destination MAC address and Source MAC
address.

The IEEE Std 802.1D, 1998 Edition priority marking scheme assigns each
frame with an IEEE 802.1p priority level between 0 and 7, which
How Traffic Prioritization Works 51

determines the level of service that type of traffic should receive. Refer to
Table 6 for an example of how different traffic types can be mapped to
the eight IEEE 802.1p priority levels.

Table 6 IEEE recommendation for mapping 802.1p priority levels to 802.1D

traffic types

IEEE 802.1p IEEE 802.1D

Priority Level Traffic Type
0 Best Effort (default)
1 Background
2 Standard (spare)
3 Excellent Effort (business critical)
4 Controlled Load (streaming multimedia)
5 Video (interactive media), less than 100 milliseconds latency and
jitter
6 Voice (interactive voice), less than 10 milliseconds latency and jitter
7 Network Control Reserved traffic

The traffic marking and prioritization supported by the Switch using layer
2 information is compatible with the relevant sections of the IEEE Std
802.1D, 1998 Edition (incorporating IEEE 802.1p).

The IEEE 802.1D standard is the most widely used prioritization scheme in
the LAN environment, but it does however have some restrictions:
■ It requires an additional 4-byte tag in the frame, which is normally
optional in Ethernet networks. Without this tag, the scheme cannot
work.
■ The tag is part of the IEEE 802.1Q header, so to implement QoS at
layer 2, the entire network has to implement IEEE 802.1Q VLAN
tagging.
■ It is only supported on a LAN and not across routed WAN links,
because the IEEE 802.1Q tags are removed when the packets pass
through a router.

Differentiated Services (DiffServ) Traffic Marking

DiffServ is a Layer 3 marking scheme that uses the DiffServ Code Point
(DSCP) field in the IP header to store the packet priority information.
DSCP is an advanced intelligent method of traffic marking because you
can choose how your network prioritizes different types of traffic. DSCP
52 CHAPTER 6: USING TRAFFIC PRIORITIZATION

uses 64 values that map to user-defined service levels, allowing you to

establish more control over network traffic.

Advantages of DiffServ over IEEE 802.1D are:

■ No extra tags are required in the packet.
■ DSCP uses the IP header of a packet and therefore priority is preserved
across the Internet.
■ DSCP is backward compatible with IPV4 TOS, which allows operation
with any existing devices with layer 3 TOS enabled prioritization
scheme in use.

Traffic Re-Marking Traffic entering the Switch may get downgraded depending on the
network policies. If for example a traffic packet enters the Switch with a
priority marking higher than the Quality of Service (QoS) configuration
polices, the Switch will Re-Mark the packet with a different 802.1D
priority or new DSCP value.

Traffic Prioritization Your Switch supports Basic and Advanced Quality of Service (QoS) traffic
prioritization. Basic traffic prioritization classifies traffic based on layer 2
of the OSI 7 layer model, and the Switch will prioritize the received traffic
according to the priority information defined in the received packet.
Advanced traffic prioritization can classify traffic at layers 2, 3 and 4 of
the OSI 7 layer model.

Basic Traffic Prioritization

Incoming traffic is classified based upon the IEEE 802.1D frame and is
assigned to the appropriate priority queue based upon the IEEE 802.1p
service level value defined in that packet. Service level markings (values)
are defined in the IEEE 802.1Q 4-byte tag, and therefore traffic will only
contain 802.1p priority markings if the network is configured with VLANs
and VLAN tagging. The Switch 3812 and Switch 3824 both support basic
traffic prioritization. The traffic flow through the Switch is as follows:
1 A packet received by the Switch may or may not have an 802.1p tag
associated with it. If it does not, then it is given a default 802.1p tag
(which is 0). The packet may be remarked with a new 802.1p value,
which will result in all knowledge of the old 802.1p tag being lost.
2 Because the 802.1p priority levels are fixed to the traffic queues (as
shown in Figure 14 on page 53), the packet will be placed in the
appropriate priority queue, ready for transmission through the
How Traffic Prioritization Works 53

appropriate egress port(s). When the packet reaches the head of its
queue and is about to be transmitted the device determines whether or
not the egress port is tagged for that VLAN. If it is, then the new 802.1p
tag is used in the extended 802.1D header.

The IEEE 802.1D standard specifies eight distinct levels of priority (0 to 7),
each of which relates to a particular type of traffic. The priority levels and
their traffic types are shown in Figure 14 in order of increasing priority.
The mapping from 802.1p level to traffic queue in the Switch is
proprietary and is slightly different to the recommended IEEE mapping.

Figure 14 IEEE 802.1p priority levels and recommended IEEE 802.1D traffic
types

Traffic Queues
Switch 3812 and Switch 3824
Queue 1 (Low Priority)
802.1p
Service Levels

Background 1 Queue 2

Spare 2

Traffic Queue 3
Best Effort 0
Classification

Business Critical 3 Queue 4

Ingress Port 802.1D Egress Port
Multimedia 4
Queue 5 (Priority)
Video 5
Queue 6
Voice 6

Network Control 7 Queue 7

Queue 8 (High Priority)

The number of queues and their mappings to the 8 levels is proprietary

and can even vary between Switches from the same vendor.

You cannot alter the mapping between the IEEE 802.1p priorities and the
traffic queues. These are calculated to be the most efficient, and are fixed
as illustrated in Figure 14.
54 CHAPTER 6: USING TRAFFIC PRIORITIZATION

Figure 14 shows how traffic prioritization works at layer 2. The Switch

will check a packet received at the ingress port for IEEE 802.1D traffic
classification, and then prioritize it based upon the IEEE 802.1p value
(service levels) in that tag. It is this 802.1p value that determines which
traffic queue the packet is mapped to.

Advanced Traffic Prioritization

Incoming traffic can be classified based on packet attributes at different
layers of the OSI 7 layer model. The Switch can look in the packet for
layer 2, 3 and 4 attributes to identify incoming traffic.

Most of the current applications, for example Microsoft Word, Lotus

Notes and NetMeeting, are not QoS-aware and do not apply a service
level to the traffic that they send. Being an intelligent Switch, your Switch
can use its own rules to classify and mark the traffic. If the incoming
traffic has pre-defined service level markings, the advanced traffic
prioritization of your Switch will assign the appropriate DSCP and 802.1D
service level markings to that incoming traffic.

The advanced traffic prioritization in the Switch will:

■ Classify traffic based on different packet attributes. The four common
methods of classification are DSCP, TCP/UDP ports, IP Address and
Protocol.
■ Mark traffic as it enters the Switch with the appropriate DSCP and
802.1D markings.

Figure 15 shows how traffic is treated using the advanced traffic

prioritization in the Switch.

The DSCP field in the IP packet header can be used to classify (identify)
traffic as well as carrying the priority markings, as shown in Figure 15.
How Traffic Prioritization Works 55

Figure 15 Advanced traffic prioritization and marking

Mapping is predefined
and not configurable
Switch 3812 and Switch 3824

Configured Marking and Traffic Queues

Queue 1 is lowest priority
Service Levels Remarking Queue 8 is highest priority
802.1p
Service Level DSCP 802.1D Priority Queue 1
1
Service Level DSCP 802.1D Queue 2
2
Classification
Queue 3
0
DSCP Queue 4
3
Ingress Port Egress Port
EtherType 4 Queue 5

Service Level DSCP 802.1D 5 Queue 6

6
Service Level DSCP 802.1D Queue 7
7
Queue 8

1 The packet received at the ingress port is checked for any of the
supported traffic classification methods (DSCP, Ethertype, Protocol) to
identify the traffic.
2 The classification in an incoming packet will be compared with the
predefined classifications in the Switch, and if there is a match, the
configured service level associated with the classified traffic will be
applied.
3 The service level associated with the classifier may cause the 802.1p tag
to be remarked, if the packet already has an 802.1p tag, and the DSCP
value in IP packets to be remarked.
4 The Switch will remark the 802.1p tag and DSCP field.
5 It is the priority associated with the packet that is used to direct it to the
appropriate queue. This is determined as follows:
■ If the packet matches a classifier with a configured service level
specifying that the DSCP or 802.1p tag should be re-marked, then the
packet is re-marked with the configured DSCP value and or the
802.1p priority.
56 CHAPTER 6: USING TRAFFIC PRIORITIZATION

■ Otherwise, if there are no other classifiers except the 802.1p tag, then
the packet will pass through the Switch with the original 802.1p
priority tag.
■ Otherwise, if the received packet does not have an 802.1p tag, then a
default 802.1p tag (which is usually 0) is assigned to it.

Traffic Queues It is the multiple traffic queues within the Switch hardware that allow
packet prioritization to occur. Higher priority traffic can pass through the
Switch without being delayed by lower priority traffic. As each packet
arrives in the Switch, it passes through any ingress processing (which
includes classification or marking/remarking), and is then sorted into the
appropriate queue. The Switch then forwards packets from each queue.
It is worth noting that each egress port has its own set of queues, so that
if one port is congested it does not interfere with the queue operation of
other ports.

The Switch uses the Weighted Round Robin (WRR) queuing mechanism.
This method services all the traffic queues, giving priority to the higher
priority queues. Under most circumstances, this method gives high
priority precedence over low-priority, but in the event that high-priority
traffic exceeds the link capacity, lower priority traffic is not blocked.

Traffic queues cannot be enabled on a per-port basis on the Switch 3812

and Switch 3824.

Important QoS Before implementing QoS on your network you need to consider the
Considerations following points:
■ Your Switch:
■ Has a predefined Classifier for NBX traffic, which is DSCP service
level 46. If the profile assigned to the port on which the NBX traffic
is received has an NBX classifier in it such as the default profile
does, the Switch will automatically detect NBX telephone voice
traffic and prioritize accordingly. The Switch also has an NBX
classifier for Ethernet Type 0x8868, which is the layer 2 NBX traffic
identifier. NBX is layer 2 out of the box and has to be configured by
the user to be layer 3, so the DSCP 46 classifier may in fact be used
in fewer NBX installations than the Ethernet Type 0x8868.
■ Can map between IEEE 802.1D and DSCP to support legacy
devices in the network that only support IEEE 802.1D.
Important QoS Considerations 57

■ Has eight traffic queues, but it is important to note that not all
Switches have the same number of priority queues.
■ QoS is about providing a consistent, predictable data delivery service.
It should not be used as an alternative to deploying sufficient
bandwidth. The recommended configuration for most networks is
10/100 Mbps switching to the desktop, Gigabit connections for
servers, and non-blocking Gigabit backbones.
■ QoS requires the support of every network device from end-to-end.
All devices in the network should support QoS. If there is just one
section in the data path that does not support QoS, it can produce
bottlenecks and slowdowns, although a performance improvement
will be noticed over the parts of the network that do support QoS.
■ Ensure that all QoS devices are configured the same way. Mismatches
will cause the same traffic to be prioritized in one section and not in
another.
■ Only use Switches or hardware-based routers in the LAN. Hubs cannot
prioritize traffic, and software-based routers can cause bottlenecks.
■ Use Switches and hardware-based routers that understand both the
IEEE 802.1D (incorporating IEEE 802.1p) and DSCP marking schemes.
■ Classify traffic as soon as it enters the network. If traffic is not
classified until it gets to the WAN router or firewall, end-to-end
prioritization cannot be guaranteed. The ideal place for traffic
classification is within the Switch.
■ Traffic Marking is performed as a result of classification, and so you
should aim to perform the marking only once to reduce the additional
requirements that QoS places upon the capabilities of your network
infrastructure.
■ As DSCP uses a field in the IP header, it is only possible to use the
DSCP in IP packets. It does not apply, for example, to AppleTalk, IPX or
NetBEUI.
■ Because DSCP is a redefinition of the use of the TOS byte in the IP
header, there are some issues with interaction with IP TOS based
networks.
58 CHAPTER 6: USING TRAFFIC PRIORITIZATION

Default QoS The Switch is pre-configured with the following settings:

Configurations Table 7 Default traffic classifiers configured in your Switch

Classifier Classifier Protocol IEEE 802.ID DSCP

Name Type Identifier Priority Marking
3Com NBX EtherType 0x8868 6 46
Voice-LAN
3Com NBX DSCP 46 6 46
Voice-IP
Internet DSCP 48 7 48
Network Control
Network DSCP 56 7 56
Control
7 STATUS MONITORING AND
STATISTICS

This chapter contains details of the Remote Monitoring (RMON) feature

that assists you with status monitoring and statistics.

For detailed descriptions of the Web interface operations and the

Command Line Interface (CLI) commands that you require to manage the
Switch please refer to the Management Interface Reference Guide
supplied in HTML format on the CD-ROM that accompanies your Switch.

RMON Using the RMON capabilities of a Switch allows you to improve your
network efficiency and reduce the load on your network.

This section explains more about RMON. It covers the following topics:
■ What is RMON?
■ Benefits of RMON
■ RMON and the Switch

What is RMON? RMON is a system defined by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force)
that allows you to monitor the traffic of LANs or VLANs.

RMON is an integrated part of the Switch software agent and continually

collects statistics about a LAN segment or VLAN, and transfers the
information to a management workstation on request or when a
pre-defined threshold is crossed. The workstation does not have to be on
the same network as the Switch and can manage the Switch by in-band
or out-of-band connections.

The RMON Groups The IETF define groups of Ethernet RMON statistics. This section describes
the four groups supported by the Switch, and details how you can use
them.
60 CHAPTER 7: STATUS MONITORING AND STATISTICS

Statistics
The Statistics group provides traffic and error statistics showing packets,
bytes, broadcasts, multicasts and errors on a LAN segment or VLAN.

Information from the Statistics group is used to detect changes in traffic

and error patterns in critical areas of your network.

History
The History group provides historical views of network performance by
taking periodic samples of the counters supplied by the Statistics group.

The group is useful for analyzing the traffic patterns and trends on a LAN
segment or VLAN, and for establishing the normal operating parameters
of your network.

Alarms
The Alarms group provides a mechanism for setting thresholds and
sampling intervals to generate events on any RMON variable.

Alarms are used to inform you of network performance problems and

they can trigger automated responses through the Events group.

Events
The Events group provides you with the ability to create entries in an
event log and send SNMP traps to the management workstation. Events
are the action that can result from an RMON alarm. In addition to the
standard five traps required by SNMP (link up, link down, warm start, cold
start, and authentication failure), RMON adds two more: rising threshold
and falling threshold.

Effective use of the Events group saves you time; rather than having to
watch real-time graphs for important occurrences, you can depend on
the Event group for notification. Through the SNMP traps, events can
trigger other actions, therefore providing a way to automatically respond
to certain occurrences.
Benefits of RMON 61

Benefits of RMON Using the RMON features of your Switch has three main advantages:
■ It improves your efficiency
Using RMON allows you to remain at one workstation and collect
information from widely dispersed LAN segments or VLANs. This
means that the time taken to reach a problem site, set up equipment,
and begin collecting information is largely eliminated.
■ It allows you to manage your network in a more proactive
manner
If configured correctly, RMON can deliver information before problems
occur. This means that you can take action before they affect users. In
addition, probes record the behavior of your network, so that you can
analyze the causes of problems.
■ It reduces the load on the network and the management
workstation
Traditional network management involves a management workstation
polling network devices at regular intervals to gather statistics and
identify problems or trends. As network sizes and traffic levels grow,
this approach places a strain on the management workstation and
also generates large amounts of traffic.
RMON, however, autonomously looks at the network on behalf of the
management workstation without affecting the characteristics and
performance of the network. RMON reports by exception, which
means that it only informs the management workstation when the
network has entered an abnormal state.

RMON and the The RMON support provided by your Switch 3812 and Switch 3824 is
Switch detailed in Table 8.
Table 8 RMON support supplied by the Switch

RMON group Support supplied by the Switch

Statistics A new or initialized Switch has one Statistics session per port.
History A new or initialized Switch has two History sessions per port.
These sessions provide the data for the Web interface history
displays:
■ 10min intervals, 6 historical samples stored
■ 1 hour intervals, 6 historical samples stored
62 CHAPTER 7: STATUS MONITORING AND STATISTICS

Table 8 RMON support supplied by the Switch

RMON group Support supplied by the Switch

Alarms A new or initialized Switch has the following alarm(s) defined for
each port:
For more information about the alarms setup on the Switch, see
“Alarm Events” on page 62.
Events A new or initialized Switch has Events defined for use with the
default alarm system.

When using the RMON features of the Switch, note the following:
■ After the default sessions are created, they have no special status. You
can delete or change them as required.
■ The greater the number of RMON sessions, the greater the burden on
the management resources of the Switch. If you have many RMON
sessions, the forwarding performance of the Switch is not affected but
you may experience slow response times from the Web interface.

Alarm Events You can define alarms for the Switch. The events that you can define for
each alarm and their resulting actions are listed in Table 9.

Table 9 Alarm Events

Event Action
No action
Notify only Send Trap.
Notify and filter port Send Trap. Block broadcast and multicast
traffic on the port. Recovers with the unfilter
port event.
Notify and disable port Send Trap. Turn port off.
Notify and enable port Send Trap. Turn port on.
Disable port Turn port off.
Enable port Turn port on.
Notify and switch resilient port Send Trap. If port is the main port of a
resilient link pair then move to standby.
Notify and unfilter port Send Trap. Stop blocking broadcast and
multicast traffic on the port.
System started
8 SETTING UP VIRTUAL LANS

Setting up Virtual LANs (VLANs) on your Switch increases the efficiency of

your network by dividing the LAN into logical, rather than physical,
segments which are easier to manage.

This chapter explains more about the concept of VLANs and explains how
they can be implemented on your Switch. It covers the following topics:
■ What are VLANs?
■ Benefits of VLANs
■ VLANs and Your Switch
■ VLAN Configuration Examples

For detailed descriptions of the Web interface operations and the

Command Line Interface (CLI) commands that you require to manage the
Switch please refer to the Management Interface Reference Guide
supplied in HTML format on the CD-ROM that accompanies your Switch.

What are VLANs? A VLAN is a flexible group of devices that can be located anywhere in a
network, but which communicate as if they are on the same physical
segment. With VLANs, you can segment your network without being
restricted by physical connections — a limitation of traditional network
design. As an example, with VLANs you can segment your network
according to:
■ Departmental groups — For example, you can have one VLAN for
the Marketing department, another for the Finance department, and
another for the Development department.
■ Hierarchical groups — For example, you can have one VLAN for
directors, another for managers, and another for general staff.
■ Usage groups — For example, you can have one VLAN for users of
e-mail, and another for users of multimedia.
64 CHAPTER 8: SETTING UP VIRTUAL LANS

Figure 16 A network setup showing three VLANs

Backbone connecting multiple switches

Switch A Switch B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Development Department
VLAN 3

Marketing Department Finance Department

VLAN 1 VLAN 2

Benefits of VLANs The main benefit of VLANs is that they provide a network segmentation
system that is far more flexible than any traditional network. Using VLANs
also provides you with three other benefits:
■ VLANs ease the movement of devices on networks
With traditional networks, network administrators spend much of
their time dealing with moves and changes. If users move to a
different subnetwork, the addresses of each endstation must be
updated manually.
With a VLAN setup, if an endstation in VLAN Marketing for example is
moved to a port in another part of the network, and retains its original
subnet membership, you only need to specify that the new port is in
VLAN Marketing. You do not need to carry out any re-cabling.
■ VLANs provide extra security
Devices within each VLAN can only communicate with other devices in
the same VLAN. If a device in VLAN Marketing needs to communicate
with devices in VLAN Finance, the traffic must pass through a routing
device or Layer 3 Switch.
VLANs and Your Switch 65

■ VLANs help to control traffic

With traditional networks, congestion can be caused by broadcast
traffic that is directed to all network devices whether they require it or
not. VLANs increase the efficiency of your network because each
VLAN can be set up to contain only those devices that need to
communicate with each other.

VLANs and Your Your Switch provides support for VLANs using the IEEE Std 802.1Q-1998.
Switch This standard allows traffic from multiple VLANs to be carried across one
physical link.

The IEEE Std 802.1Q-1998 allows each port on your Switch to be placed
in:

■ Any one VLAN defined on the Switch.

■ Several VLANs at the same time using 802.1Q tagging.

The standard requires that you define the following information about
each VLAN on your Switch before the Switch can use it to forward traffic:

■ VLAN Name — This is a descriptive name for the VLAN (for example,
Marketing or Management).
■ 802.1Q VLAN ID — This is used to identify the VLAN if you use
802.1Q tagging across your network.

The Default VLAN A new or initialized Switch contains a single VLAN, the Default VLAN.
This VLAN has the following definition:
■ VLAN Name — Default VLAN
■ 802.1Q VLAN ID — 1 (if tagging required)

All the ports are initially placed in this VLAN, and it is the only VLAN that
allows you to access the management software of the Switch over the
network.

Communication If the devices placed in a VLAN need to communicate to devices in a

Between VLANs different VLAN, a router or Layer 3 switching device with connections to
both VLANs needs to be installed. Communication between VLANs can
only take place if they are all connected to a routing or Layer 3 switching
device.
66 CHAPTER 8: SETTING UP VIRTUAL LANS

Figure 17 Two VLANs connected via a router

Creating New VLANs If you want to move a port from the Default VLAN to another VLAN, you
must first define information about the new VLAN on your Switch.

VLANs: Tagged and Your Switch supports 802.1Q VLAN tagging, a system that allows traffic
Untagged for multiple VLANs to be carried on a single physical (backbone) link.
Membership
When setting up VLANs you need to understand when to use untagged
and tagged membership of VLANs. Quite simply, if a port is in a single
VLAN it can be an untagged member, but if the port needs to be a
member of multiple VLANs, tagged membership must be defined.
Typically endstations (for example, clients) will be untagged members of
one VLAN, while inter-Switch connections will be tagged members of all
VLANs.

The IEEE Std 802.1Q-1998 defines how VLANs operate within an open
packet-switched network. An 802.1Q compliant packet carries additional
information that allows a Switch to determine to which VLAN the port
belongs. If a frame is carrying the additional information, it is known as
tagged.

To carry multiple VLANs across a single physical (backbone) link, each

packet must be tagged with a VLAN identifier so that the Switches can
VLAN Configuration Examples 67

identify which packets belong in which VLANs. To communicate between

VLANs a router must be used.

VLAN This section contains examples of VLAN configurations. It describes how

Configuration to set up your Switch to support simple untagged and tagged
Examples connections.

Using Untagged The simplest VLAN operates in a small network using a single switch. In
Connections this network there is no requirement to pass traffic for multiple VLANs
across a link. All traffic is handled by the single Switch and therefore
untagged connections can be used.
The example shown in Figure 18 illustrates a single Switch connected to
endstations and servers using untagged connections. Ports 1, 2 and 3 of
the Switch belong to VLAN 1, ports 10, 11 and 12 belong to VLAN 2.
VLANs 1 and 2 are completely separate and cannot communicate with
each other. This provides additional security for your network.

Figure 18 VLAN configuration example: Using untagged connections

68 CHAPTER 8: SETTING UP VIRTUAL LANS

To set up the configuration shown in Figure 18:

1 Configure the VLANs
Define VLAN 2 on the Switch. VLAN 1 is the default VLAN and already
exists.
2 Add ports to the VLANs
Add ports 10, 11 and 12 of the Switch as untagged members to VLAN 2.

You can use the Switch Web Interface to change VLAN conguration.
VLAN configuration can be found at Bridge > VLAN.

Using 802.1Q Tagged In a network where the VLANs are distributed amongst more than one
Connections Switch, you must use 802.1Q tagged connections so that all VLAN traffic
can be passed along the links between the Switches. 802.1Q tagging can
only be used if the devices at both ends of a link support IEEE 802.1Q.

The example shown in Figure 19 illustrates two Switch units. Each Switch
has endstations and a server in VLAN 1 and VLAN 2. All endstations in
VLAN 1 need to be able to connect to the server in VLAN1 which is
attached to Switch 1 and all endstations in VLAN 2 need to connect to
the server in VLAN2 which is attached to Switch 2.

Figure 19 VLAN configuration example: 802.1Q tagged connections

VLAN Configuration Examples 69

To set up the configuration shown in Figure 19:

1 Configure the VLANs on Switch 1
Define VLAN 2. VLAN 1 is the default VLAN and already exists.
2 Add endstation ports on Switch 1 to the VLANs
Place the endstation ports in the appropriate VLANs as untagged
members.
3 Add port 12 on Switch 1 to the VLANs
Add port 12 on Switch 1 as a tagged member of both VLANs 1 and 2 so
that all VLAN traffic is passed over the link to Switch 2.
4 Configure the VLANs on Switch 2
Define VLAN 2. VLAN 1 is the default VLAN and already exists.
5 Add endstation ports on Switch 2 to the VLANs
Place the endstation ports in the appropriate VLANs as untagged
members.
6 Add port 11 on Switch 2 to the VLANs
Add port 11 on Switch 2 as a tagged member of both VLANs 1 and 2 so
that all VLAN traffic is passed over the link to Switch 1.
7 Check the VLAN membership for both Switches
The relevant ports should be listed in the VLAN members summary.
8 Connect the Switches
Connect port 12 on Switch 1 to port 11 on Switch 2.

The VLANs are now configured and operational and the endstations in
both VLANs can communicate with their relevant servers.
70 CHAPTER 8: SETTING UP VIRTUAL LANS
9 USING AUTOMATIC IP
CONFIGURATION

This chapter explains more about IP addresses and how the automatic
configuration option works. It covers the following topics:
■ How Your Switch Obtains IP Information
■ How Automatic IP Configuration Works
■ Important Considerations

For detailed information on setting up your Switch for management, see

the Getting Started Guide that accompanies your Switch.

For detailed descriptions of the Web interface operations and the

Command Line Interface (CLI) commands that you require to manage the
Switch please refer to the Management Interface Reference Guide
supplied in HTML format on the CD-ROM that accompanies your Switch.

For background information on IP addressing, see Appendix C “IP

Addressing”.
72 CHAPTER 9: USING AUTOMATIC IP CONFIGURATION

How Your Switch Your Switch has two ways to obtain its IP address information:
Obtains IP
Information ■ Automatic IP Configuration (default) — the Switch attempts to
configure itself by communicating with a DHCP server on the
network.
■ Manual IP Configuration — you can manually input the IP
information (IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway).

If you select an option for no IP configuration the Switch will not be

accessible from a remote management workstation on the LAN. In
addition, the Switch will not be able to respond to SNMP requests.

How Automatic IP When your Switch is powered up for the first time the IP configuration
Configuration setting is set to auto — this is the default setting.
Works
If your Switch has been powered up before, whichever of the three
options for IP configuration (manual, auto, none) was last
configured is activated when the Switch powers up again.

You can switch to manual IP configuration at any time using a serial port
connection to set up the IP information. For more information see the
Getting Started Guide that accompanies your Switch.

Automatic Process To detect its IP information using the automatic configuration process,
the Switch continually attempt to contact a DHCP server on the network
requesting IP information from the server.

If a DHCP server is on the network and working correctly it responds to

the clients request with an IP address (allocated from a pool of available
addresses) and other parameters such as a subnet mask, default gateway,
lease time, and any other options configured in the DHCP server.

The way a DCHP server responds is dependant on the DHCP server

settings. Therefore the way your DHCP server responds may be different
to the process outlined.

Important This section contains some important points to note when using the
Considerations automatic IP configuration feature.
Important Considerations 73

The dynamic nature of automatically configured IP information means

that a Switch may change its IP address whilst in use.

Server Support Your Switch has been tested to interoperate with DHCP servers that use
the following operating systems:
■ Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
■ Microsoft Windows NT4 Server
■ Sun Solaris v2.5.1

If you want DHCP to be the method for automatic configuration, make

sure that your DHCP servers are operating normally before you power on
your Switch.

Event Log Entries An event log will be generated and an SNMP trap will be sent if the IP
and Traps address configuration is changed manually.
74 CHAPTER 9: USING AUTOMATIC IP CONFIGURATION
A CONFIGURATION RULES

Configuration Rules Gigabit Ethernet is designed to run over several media:

for Gigabit ■ Single-mode fiber optic cable, with connections up to 5 km
Ethernet (3.1 miles). Support for distances over 5 km is supported depending
on the module specification.
■ Multimode fiber optic cable, with connections up to 550 m (1804 ft).
■ Category 5 cabling, with connections up to 100 m (328 ft).

The different types of Gigabit Ethernet media and their specifications are
detailed in Table 10.

Table 10 Gigabit Ethernet cabling

Modal Lengths Supported

Gigabit Ethernet Bandwidth Specified by IEEE
Transceivers Fiber Type (MHz/km) (meters)
1000BASE-LX 62.5 µm MM 500 2–550
50 µm MM 400 2–550
50 µm MM 500 2–550
10 µm SM N/A 2–5000
1000BASE-SX 62.5 µm MM 160 2–220
62.5 µm MM 120 2–275
50 µm MM 400 2–500
50 µm MM 500 2–550
1000BASE-T N/A N/A 100

MM = Multimode SM = Single-mode
76 APPENDIX A: CONFIGURATION RULES

Configuration Rules The topology rules for 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet are slightly different to
for Fast Ethernet those for 10 Mbps Ethernet. Figure 20 illustrates the key topology rules
and provides examples of how they allow for large-scale Fast Ethernet
networks.

Figure 20 Fast Ethernet configuration rules

The key topology rules are:

■ Maximum UTP cable length is 100 m (328 ft) over Category 5 cable.
■ A 412 m (1352 ft) fiber link is allowed for connecting
switch-to-switch, or endstation-to-switch, using half-duplex
100BASE-FX.
Configuration Rules for Fast Ethernet 77

■ A total network span of 325 m (1066 ft) is allowed in single-repeater

topologies (one hub stack per wiring closet with a fiber link to the
collapsed backbone). For example, a 225 m (738 ft) fiber link from a
repeater to a router or switch, plus a 100 m (328 ft) UTP link from a
repeater out to the endstations.

Configuration Rules The Switch provides full duplex support for all its ports, including
with Full Duplex Expansion Module ports. Full duplex allows packets to be transmitted and
received simultaneously and, in effect, doubles the potential throughput
of a link.

With full duplex, the Ethernet topology rules are the same, but the Fast
Ethernet rules are:
■ Maximum UTP cable length is 100 m (328 ft) over Category 5 cable.
■ A 2 km (6562 ft) fiber link is allowed for connecting switch-to-switch,
or endstation-to-switch.
78 APPENDIX A: CONFIGURATION RULES
B NETWORK CONFIGURATION
EXAMPLES

This chapter contains the following sections:

■ Simple Network Configuration Examples
■ Desktop Switch Example
■ Advanced Network Configuration Examples
■ Improving the Resilience of Your Network
■ Enhancing the Performance of Your Network
80 APPENDIX B: NETWORK CONFIGURATION EXAMPLES

Simple Network The following illustrations show some simple examples of how the
Configuration Switch 3812 and Switch 3824 can be used in your network.
Examples

Desktop Switch The example in Figure 21 shows how a Switch 3812 and Switch 3824
Example can be used for a group of users that require dedicated 10 Mbps 100
Mbps or 1000 Mbps connections to the desktop.

Figure 21 Using the Switch 3812 and Switch 3824 in a desktop environment

Switch 3824
Endstations on
10 Mbps/100 Mbps connections

1000 Mbps Local server on a switched

100 Mbps connection

Servers on a
Switch 3824 1000 Mbps
connection
Advanced Network Configuration Examples 81

Advanced Network This section shows some network examples that illustrate how you can
Configuration set up your network for optimum performance using some of the
Examples features supported by your Switch.

Improving the Figure 22 shows how you can set up your network to improve its
Resilience of Your resilience using Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and aggregated links also
Network Aggregated links increase bandwidth available and also provide extra
resilience.

Figure 22 Network set up to provide resilience

Switch 3824

Stack of four Switch 4200 units

Endstations on
10/100 Mbps connections

Server on
1000 Mbps connection
with resilient links set up

Switch 3824

Stack of four Switch 4200 units

Endstations on
10/100 Mbps connections

Server on
1000 Mbps connection
with resilient links set up

1000 Mbps with

aggregated links 100 Mbps
set up

Servers on
1000 Mbps connections
Core Switch 1000 Mbps with resilient links set up
82 APPENDIX B: NETWORK CONFIGURATION EXAMPLES

Enhancing the Figure 23 shows how you can set your network up to enhance its
Performance of Your performance.
Network
All ports are auto-negotiating and will therefore pass data across the
network at the optimum available speed and duplex mode. Flow control
will help avoid packet loss during periods of network congestion. A
Gigabit Ethernet backbone is set up between the Switch 3824 and each
Switch in the workgroups to increase the bandwidth, and therefore the
overall network performance.

Figure 23 Network set up to enhance performance

Stack of two Switch 4200 units Endstations on

10/100 Mbps connections

Production Workgroups

Stack of four Switch 4200 units

1000 Mbps with
aggregated links Endstations on
set up 10/100 Mbps connections

Administrative Workgroups
1000 Mbps with
aggregated links
set up
100 Mbps

Servers on 1000 Mbps

connections with
aggregated links set up

Switch 3824 1000 Mbps

C IP ADDRESSING

This chapter provides some background detail on the IP information that

needs to be assigned to your Switch to enable you to manage it across a
network. The topics covered are:
■ IP Addresses
■ Subnets and Subnet Masks
■ Default Gateways

IP addressing is a vast topic and there are white papers on the World
Wide Web and publications available if you wish to learn more about IP
addressing.

IP Addresses This IP address section is divided into two parts:

■ Simple Overview — Gives a brief overview of what an IP address is.
■ Advanced Overview — Gives a more in depth explanation of IP
addresses and the way they are structured.

Simple Overview To operate correctly, each device on your network must have a unique IP
address. IP addresses have the format n.n.n.n where n is a decimal
number between 0 and 255. An example IP address is ‘192.168.100.8’.

The IP address can be split into two parts:

■ The first part, called the network part, (‘192.168’ in the example)
identifies the network on which the device resides.
■ The second part, called the host part, (‘100.8’ in the example)
identifies the device within the network.

If your network is internal to your organization only, you may use any
arbitrary IP address. 3Com suggests you use addresses in the series
84 APPENDIX C: IP ADDRESSING

192.168.100.X (where X is a number between 1 and 254) with a subnet

mask 255.255.255.0.

These suggested IP addresses are part of a group of IP addresses that

have been set aside specially for use “in house” only.

CAUTION: If your network has a connection to the external IP network,

you must apply for a registered IP address. This registration system
ensures that every IP address used is unique; if you do not have a
registered IP address, you may be using an identical address to someone
else and your network will not operate correctly.

Obtaining a Registered IP Address

InterNIC Registration Services is the organization responsible for
supplying registered IP addresses. The following contact information is
correct at time of publication:
World Wide Web site: http://www.internic.net

Advanced Overview IP addresses are 32-bit addresses that consist of a network part (the
address of the network where the host is located) and a host part (the
address of the host on that network).

Figure 24 IP Address: Network Part and Host Part

IP Address 32 bits
network host

The boundary between network

and host parts depends on the
class of IP network.

IP addresses differ from Ethernet MAC addresses, which are unique

hardware-configured 48-bit addresses. A central agency, such as the
InterNIC Registration Services mentioned above, assigns the network part
of the IP address, and you assign the host part. All devices that are
connected to the same network share the same network part (also called
the prefix).

Dotted Decimal Notation

The actual IP address is a 32-bit number that is stored in binary format.
These 32 bits are segmented into 4 groups of 8 bits — each group is
IP Addresses 85

referred to as a field or an octet. Decimal notation converts the value of

each field into a decimal number, and the fields are separated by dots.

Figure 25 Dotted Decimal Notation for IP Addresses

10011110.01100101.00001010.00100000 = Binary notation

158.101.10.32 = Decimal notation

The decimal value of an octet whose bits are all 1s is 255.

Network Portion
The location of the boundary between the network part and the host
part depends on the class that the central agency assigns to your
network. The three primary classes of IP addresses are as follows:
■ Class A address — Uses 8 bits for the network part and 24 bits for
the host part. Although only a few Class A networks can be created,
each can contain a very large number of hosts.
■ Class B address — Uses 16 bits for the network part and 16 bits for
the host part.
■ Class C address — Uses 24 bits for the network part and 8 bits for
the host part. Each Class C network can contain only 254 hosts, but
many such networks can be created.

The high-order bits of the network part of the address designate the IP
network class. See Table 11.

Table 11 How Address Class Corresponds to the Address Number

Address Number
Address Class High-order Bits (Decimal)
A 0nnnnnnn 0-127
B 10nnnnnn 128-191
C 11nnnnnn 192-254
86 APPENDIX C: IP ADDRESSING

Subnets and Subnet You can divide your IP network into sub-networks also known as subnets.
Masks Support for subnets is important because the number of bits assigned to
the device part of an IP address limits the number of devices that may be
addressed on any given network. For example, a Class C address is
restricted to 254 devices.

The IP address can also contain a subnetwork part at the beginning of the
host part of the IP address. Thus, you can divide a single Class A, B, or C
network internally, allowing the network to appear as a single network to
other external networks. The subnetwork part of the IP address is visible
only to hosts and gateways on the subnetwork.

When an IP address contains a subnetwork part, a subnet mask identifies

the bits that constitute the subnetwork address and the bits that
constitute the host address. A subnet mask is a 32-bit number in the IP
address format. The 1 bits in the subnet mask indicate the network and
subnetwork part of the address. The 0 bits in the subnet mask indicate
the host part of the IP address, as shown in Figure 26.

Figure 26 Subnet Masking

Take the IP address

IP address Network Subnet and Host

Apply the subnet mask

Subnet mask 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Result = subnet/host boundary

Network
networ Subnet
subn Host

Figure 27 shows an example of an IP address that includes network,

subnetwork, and host parts. Suppose the IP address is 158.101.230.52
with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. Since this is a Class B address, this
address is divided as follows:

■ 158.101 is the network part

■ 230 is the subnetwork part
■ 52 is the host part
Subnets and Subnet Masks 87

As shown in this example, the 32 bits of an IP address and subnet mask

are usually written using an integer shorthand. This notation translates
four consecutive 8-bit groups (octets) into four integers that range from 0
through 255. The subnet mask in the example is written as
255.255.255.0.

Traditionally, subnet masks were applied to octets in their entirety.

However, one octet in the subnet mask can be further subdivided so that
part of the octet indicates an extension of the network number, and the
rest of the same octet indicates the host number, as shown in Figure 27.

Figure 27 Extending the Network Prefix

Take the IP address

IP address Network Subnet and Host

Apply the subnet mask

Subnet mask 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0

Result = subnet/host boundary

Network
networ Subnet
subn Host

Using the Class B IP address from Figure 26 (158.101.230.52), the subnet

mask is 255.255.255.240.

The number that includes both the Class B natural network mask
(255.255) and the subnet mask (255.240) is sometimes called the
extended network prefix.

Continuing with the previous example, the subnetwork part of the mask
uses 12 bits, and the host part uses the remaining 4 bits. Because the
octets are actually binary numbers, the number of subnetworks that are
possible with this mask is 4,096 (212), and the number of hosts that are
possible in each subnetwork is 16 (24).

Subnet Mask Numbering

An alternate method to represent the subnet mask numbers is based on
the number of bits that signify the network portion of the mask. Many
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) now use this notation to denote the
subnet mask. See Table 12.
88 APPENDIX C: IP ADDRESSING

Table 12 Subnet Mask Notation

Standard Mask Notation Network Prefix Notation

100.100.100.100 (255.0.0.0) 100.100.100.100/8
100.100.100.100 (255.255.0.0) 100.100.100.100/16
100.100.100.100 (255.255.255.0) 100.100.100.100/24

The subnet mask 255.255.255.255 is reserved as the default broadcast

address.

Default Gateways A gateway is a device on your network which is used to forward IP

packets to a remote destination. An alternative name for a gateway is a
Router. “Remote” refers to a destination device that is not directly
attached to the same network segment as the source device.

The source device cannot send IP packets directly to the destination

device because it is in a different network segment. Instead you configure
it to send the packets to a gateway which is attached to multiple
segments.

When it receives the IP packets, the gateway determines the next

network hop on the path to the remote destination, and sends the
packets to that hop. This could either be the remote destination or
another gateway closer towards the destination.

This hop-by-hop process continues until the IP packets reach the remote
destination.

If manually configuring IP information for the Switch, enter the IP address

of the default gateway on the local subnet in which the Switch is located.
If no default gateway exists on your network, enter the IP address
0.0.0.0 or leave the field blank.
GLOSSARY

3Com Network The 3Com network management application used to manage 3Com’s
Supervisor networking solutions.

10BASE-T The IEEE specification for 10 Mbps Ethernet over Category 3, 4 or 5

twisted pair cable.

100BASE-FX The IEEE specification for 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet over fiber-optic cable.

100BASE-TX The IEEE specification for 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet over Category 5
twisted-pair cable.

1000BASE-T The IEEE specification for 1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet over four-pair
Category 5 twisted-pair cable.

1000BASE-SX The IEEE specification for 1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet over fiber-optic
cable.

aging The automatic removal of dynamic entries from the Switch Database
which have timed-out and are no longer valid.

Aggregated Links Aggregated links allow a user to increase the bandwidth and resilience
between switches by using a group of ports to carry traffic between
the switches.

auto-negotiation A feature on twisted pair ports that allows them to advertise their
capabilities for speed, duplex and flow control. When connected to a
port that also supports auto-negotiation, the link can automatically
configure itself to the optimum setup.

backbone The part of a network used as a primary path for transporting traffic
between network segments.

bandwidth The information capacity, measured in bits per second, that a channel
can transmit. The bandwidth of Ethernet is 10 Mbps, the bandwidth of
90 GLOSSARY

Fast Ethernet is 100 Mbps, and the bandwidth of Gigabit Ethernet is

1000 Mbps.

baud The signalling rate of a line, that is, the number of transitions (voltage
or frequency changes) made per second. Also known as line speed.

bridge A device that interconnects two LANs of a different type to form a

single logical network that comprises of two network segments.
Bridges learn which endstations are on which network segment by
examining the source addresses of packets. They then use this
information to forward packets based on their destination address. This
process is known as filtering.

broadcast A packet sent to all devices on a network.

broadcast storm Multiple simultaneous broadcasts that typically absorb all the available
network bandwidth and can cause a network to fail. Broadcast storms
can be due to faulty network devices.

cache Stores copies of frequently accessed objects locally to users and serves
them to users when requested.

collision A term used to describe two colliding packets in an Ethernet network.

Collisions are a part of normal Ethernet operation, but a sudden
prolonged increase in the number of collisions can indicate a problem
with a device, particularly if it is not accompanied by a general increase
in traffic.

CSMA/CD Carrier-sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection. The protocol

defined in Ethernet and IEEE 802.3 standards in which devices transmit
only after finding a data channel clear for a period of time. When two
devices transmit simultaneously, a collision occurs and the colliding
devices delay their retransmissions for a random length of time.

DHCP Dynamic Host Control Protocol. A protocol that lets you centrally
manage and automate the assignment of Internet Protocol (IP)
addresses in an organization's network.

DNS Domain Name System. This system maps a numerical Internet Protocol
(IP) address to a more meaningful and easy-to-remember name. When
you need to access another device on your network, you enter the
name of the device, instead of its IP address.
91

endstation A computer, printer or server that is connected to a network.

Ethernet A LAN specification developed jointly by Xerox, Intel and Digital

Equipment Corporation. Ethernet networks use CSMA/CD to transmit
packets at a rate of 10 Mbps over a variety of cables.

Ethernet address See MAC address.

Fast Ethernet An Ethernet system that is designed to operate at 100Mbps.

forwarding The process of sending a packet toward its destination using a

networking device.

Forwarding Database See Switch Database.

filtering The process of screening a packet for certain characteristics, such as

source address, destination address, or protocol. Filtering is used to
determine whether traffic is to be forwarded, and can also prevent
unauthorized access to a network or network devices.

flow control A mechanism that prevents packet loss during periods of congestion on
the network. Packet loss is caused when devices send traffic to an
already overloaded port on a Switch. Flow control prevents packet loss
by inhibiting devices from generating more traffic until the period of
congestion ends.

FTP File Transfer Protocol. A protocol based on TCP/IP for reliable file
transfer.

full duplex A system that allows packets to be transmitted and received at the
same time and, in effect, doubles the potential throughput of a link.

gateway See router.

Gigabit Ethernet IEEE standard 802.3z for 1000 Mbps Ethernet; it is compatible with
existing 10/100 Mbps Ethernet standards.

half duplex A system that allows packets to transmitted and received, but not at
the same time. Contrast with full duplex.

hub A device that regenerates LAN traffic so that the transmission distance
of that signal can be extended. Hubs are similar to repeaters, in that
they connect LANs of the same type; however they connect more LANs
than a repeater and are generally more sophisticated.
92 GLOSSARY

HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol. This is a set of rules for exchanging files
(text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the
World Wide Web.

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. This American

organization was founded in 1963 and sets standards for computers
and communications.

IEEE Std 802.1D, 1998 A standard that defines the behavior of bridges in an Ethernet network.
Edition

IEEE Std 802.1p A standard that defines traffic prioritization. 802.1p is now
incorporated into the relevant sections of the IEEE Std 802.1D, 1998
Edition.

IEEE Std 802.1Q-1998 A standard that defines VLAN tagging.

IEEE Std 802.3ad A standard that defines link aggregation. 802.3ad is now incorporated
into the relevant sections of the IEEE Std 802.3-2002.

IEEE Std 802.3x A standard that defines a system of flow control for ports that operate
in full duplex. 802.3x is now incorporated into the relevant sections of
the IEEE Std 802.3-2002.

IEEE Std 802.1w-2001 A standard that defines Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) behavior.

IEEE Std 802.1X-2001 A standard that defines port-based network access control behavior.

IETF Internet Engineering Task Force. An organization responsible for

providing engineering solutions for TCP/IP networks. In the network
management area, this group is responsible for the development of the
SNMP protocol.

IGMP snooping A mechanism performed by an intermediate device, such as a Layer 2

Switch, that optimizes the flow of multicast traffic. The device listens
for IGMP messages and build mapping tables and associated
forwarding filters, in addition to reducing the IGMP protocol traffic.

Internet Group Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) is a protocol that runs
Management between hosts and their immediate neighboring multicast routers. The
Protocol protocol allows a host to inform its local router that it wishes to receive
transmissions addressed to a specific multicast group. Based on group
membership information learned from the IGMP, a router is able to
93

determine which if any multicast traffic needs to be forwarded to each

of its subnetworks.

Intranet An Intranet is an organization wide network using Internet protocols

such as web services, TCP/IP, HTTP and HTML. An Intranet is normally
used for internal communication and information, and is not accessible
to computers on the wider Internet.

IP Internet Protocol. IP is a layer 3 network protocol that is the standard

for sending data through a network. IP is part of the TCP/IP set of
protocols that describe the routing of packets to addressed devices.

IPX Internetwork Packet Exchange. IPX is a layer 3 and 4 network protocol

designed for networks that use Novell® Netware®.

IP address Internet Protocol address. A unique identifier for a device attached to a

network using TCP/IP. The address is written as four octets separated
with periods (full-stops), and is made up of a network section, an
optional subnet section and a host section.

Jitter An expression often used to describe the end-to-end delay variations

during the course of a transmission. See also latency.

LAN Local Area Network. A network of endstations (such as PCs, printers,

servers) and network devices (hubs and switches) that cover a relatively
small geographic area (usually not larger than a floor or building). LANs
are characterized by high transmission speeds over short distances (up
to 1000 m).

LLC Logical Link Control. A sublayer of the IEEE data link layer that is
located above the MAC sublayer. The LLC sublayer is responsible for
MAC sublayer addressing, flow control, error control, and framing.

latency The delay between the time a device receives a packet and the time the
packet is forwarded out of the destination port.

line speed See baud.

loop An event that occurs when two network devices are connected by
more than one path, thereby causing packets to repeatedly cycle
around the network and not reach their destination.

MAC Media Access Control. A protocol specified by the IEEE for determining
which devices have access to a network at any one time.
94 GLOSSARY

MAC address Media Access Control address; also called hardware or physical address.
A layer 2 address associated with a particular network device. Most
devices that connect to a LAN have a MAC address assigned to them
as they are used to identify other devices in a network. MAC addresses
are 6 bytes long.

main port The port in a resilient link that carries data traffic in normal operating
conditions.

MDI Medium Dependent Interface. An Ethernet port connection where the

transmitter of one device is connected to the receiver of another
device.

MDI-X Medium Dependent Interface Cross-over. An Ethernet port connection

where the internal transmit and receive lines are crossed.

MIB Management Information Base. A collection of information about the

management characteristics and parameters of a networking device.
MIBs are used by the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to
gather information about the devices on a network. The Switch
contains its own internal MIB.

multicast A packet sent to a specific group of endstations on a network.

multicast filtering A system that allows a network device to only forward multicast traffic
to an endstation if it has registered that it would like to receive that
traffic.

NIC Network Interface Card. A circuit board installed in an endstation that

allows it to be connected to a network.

POST Power On Self Test. An internal test that a Switch carries out when it is
powered-up.

protocol A set of rules for communication between devices on a network. The

rules dictate format, timing, sequencing and error control.

RADIUS Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service. An industry standard

protocol for carrying authentication, authorization and configuration
information between a network device and a shared authentication
server.
95

Rapid Spanning Tree An enhanced version of the Spanning Tree Protocol that allows faster
Protocol determination of Spanning Tree topology throughout the bridged
network.

repeater A simple device that regenerates LAN traffic so that the transmission
distance of that signal can be extended. Repeaters are used to connect
two LANs of the same network type.

resilient link A pair of ports that can be configured so that one takes over data
transmission should the other fail. See also main port and standby port.

RMON IETF Remote Monitoring MIB. A MIB that allows you to remotely
monitor LANs by addressing up to nine different groups of information.

router A router is a device on your network which is used to forward IP

packets to a remote destination. An alternative name for a router is a
gateway.

RSTP See Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol.

SAP Service Access Point. A well-defined location that identifies the user of
services of a protocol entity.

segment A section of a LAN that is connected to the rest of the network using a
switch or bridge.

server A computer in a network that is shared by multiple endstations. Servers

provide endstations with access to shared network services such as
computer files and printer queues.

SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. An IETF standard protocol used for
transferring mail across a network reliably and efficiently (as defined in
RFC 821).

SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol. The current IETF standard

protocol for managing devices on an TCP/IP network.

Spanning Tree A bridge-based system for providing fault tolerance on networks. STP
Protocol (STP) works by allowing you to implement parallel paths for network traffic,
and ensure that redundant paths are disabled when the main paths are
operational and enabled if the main paths fail.

standby port The port in a resilient link that takes over data transmission if the main
port in the link fails.
96 GLOSSARY

STP See Spanning Tree Protocol (STP).

subnet mask A subnet mask is used to divide the device part of the IP address into two
further parts. The first part identifies the subnet number. The second part
identifies the device on that subnet.

switch A device that interconnects several LANs to form a single logical LAN
that comprises of several LAN segments. Switches are similar to
bridges, in that they connect LANs of a different type; however they
connect more LANs than a bridge and are generally more sophisticated.

Switch Database A database that is stored by a switch to determine if a packet should

be forwarded, and which port should forward the packet if it is to be
forwarded. Also known as Forwarding Database.

TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. This is the name for

two of the most well-known protocols developed for the
interconnection of networks. Originally a UNIX standard, TCP/IP is now
supported on almost all platforms, and is the protocol of the Internet.
TCP relates to the content of the data travelling through a network —
ensuring that the information sent arrives in one piece when it reaches
its destination. IP relates to the address of the endstation to which data
is being sent, as well as the address of the destination network.

Telnet A TCP/IP application protocol that provides a virtual terminal service,

letting a user log into another computer system and access a device as
if the user were connected directly to the device.

TFTP Trivial File Transfer Protocol. Allows you to transfer files (such as
software upgrades) from a remote device using the local management
capabilities of the Switch.

traffic prioritization A system which allows data that has been assigned a high priority to
be forwarded through a switch without being obstructed by other data.

unicast A packet sent to a single endstation on a network.

VLAN Virtual LAN. A group of location- and topology-independent devices

that communicate as if they are on the same physical LAN.

VLAN tagging A system that allows traffic for multiple VLANs to be carried on a single
link.
97

WAN Wide Area Network. A communications network that covers a wide

area. A WAN can cover a large geographic area, and may contain
several LANs within it.
98 GLOSSARY
INDEX 99

INDEX E
event notification 14
Events (RMON group) 60, 61
extended network prefix 87

F
Fast Ethernet configuration rules 76
Filter (RMON group) 60, 61
A flow control 18
addresses full duplex configuration rules 77
classes 85
IP 83
aggregated links 12, 19 G
aging time, definition 46 Gigabit Ethernet configuration rules 75
alarm events 62 glossary 89
Alarms (RMON group) 60, 61
automatic IP configuration 72
auto-negotiation 12, 18 H
Hello BPDUs 39
History (RMON group) 60, 61
B Hosts (RMON group) 61
Backup 15 Hosts Top N (RMON group) 61
bandwidth 17
BPDUs. See Bridge Protocol Data Units
Bridge Identifier 37 I
Bridge Protocol Data Units 37 IEEE Std 802.1Q-1998 65
Broadcast Storm Control 15 IEEE Std 802.3-2002 flow control 13, 18
IGMP
default setting 29
C query mode 29
cable snooping mode 29
maximum length 76, 77 IGMP multicast filtering 30
Capture (RMON group) 61 Internet
Configuration addresses 83
Restore 15 InterNIC 84
Save 15 IP (Internet Protocol)
Contents 3 addresses 84
conventions IP address 72, 83
notice icons, About This Guide 8 classes of 85
text, About This Guide 8 defined 84
derivation 84
division of network and host 84
D example 86
default gateway 88 obtaining 84
Default VLAN 65 subnet mask 86
Designated Bridge 38 subnetwork portion 86
Designated Bridge Port 38 IP multicast
addressing 27
IP routing
address classes 85
100 INDEX

L R
learned SDB entries 46 Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) 13, 35
registered IP address, obtaining 84
Remote Monitoring. See RMON
M Restore 15
MAC (Media Access Control) RMON 14
addresses alarm events 62
IP address 84 benefits 61
manual configuration 72 groups 59
masks Root Bridge 37
subnet 86 Root Path Cost 38
Matrix (RMON group) 61 Root Port 38
Max Age 39
multicast filtering 27
IGMP 30 S
multicasts, description 27 Save 15
SDB. See Switch Database
segment, maximum length 76
N Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) 13
network Spanning Tree Protocol, see STP 34
addresses 83 Statistics (RMON group) 60, 61
network configuration examples 80, 81 STP 34
non-aging learned SDB entries 46 avoiding the subdivision of VLANs 43
Bridge Identifier 37
Bridge Protocol Data Units 37
O default port costs 38
obtaining default priority 37
registered IP address 84 Designated Bridge 38
Designated Bridge Port 38
example 39
P Hello BPDUs 39
path costs. See port costs Max Age 39
permanent SDB entries 46 priority 37
port costs, default 38 Root Bridge 37
port security 12 Root Path Cost 38
port trunks Root Port 38
example 24 using on a network with multiple VLANs 43
priority in STP 37 subnet mask 86
defined 86
example 86
Q numbering 87
QoS (see Quality of Service) 14, 47 subnets 86
Quality of Service 14, 47 subnetworking
defined 86
subnet mask 86
sub-networks. See subnets
Switch Database 45
INDEX 101

T
topology rules for Fast Ethernet 76
topology rules with full duplex 77
traffic prioritization 14, 47, 48
advanced 54
basic 52
classification 49
default configurations 58
differentiated services 50, 51
DiffServ Code Point (DSCP) 51
IEEE Std 802.1D, 1998 Edition 50
marking 50
queues 56
re-marking 52
rules, application-based 47
rules, device-based 47
traffic queues 48

V
VLANs 63
benefits 64
Default 65
defining the information for 66
IEEE Std 802.1Q-1998 65
102 INDEX