Switching to the Future -- The latest generation of Fast
Ethernet switches offers solutions to fit your company
and budget
By Stan Miastkowski
Fast Ethernet is slowly but surely infiltrating the enterprise, and it's not
difficult to figure out why. Hefty servers, hungry workstations,
intranets/extranets, and data-intensive applications mean that lots of
packets are being pushed around the typical LAN. Upgrading to Fast
Ethernet's 100-megabits-per- second rate is a logical route to handling the
increased flow; not unlike expanding a dirt road to a superhighway. And
in this era of lean budgets and ever-vigilant financial folks, the decreasing
cost of 100Base-T is a powerful argument considering its potential for
increased productivity.
But like new superhighways that soon fill up with traffic, your LAN can be
quickly overwhelmed by fast-flying packets. The result can be
unacceptable amounts of collisions, network slowdowns, or full-fledged
traffic jams that can bring the network to its knees. That possibility is
particularly acute in a mixed LAN of 10 and 100-Mbps pipes.
Switches aren't new, but as their price has dropped over the past several
years, IT managers have quickly seen their usefulness in keeping network
traffic to a reasonable level by managing the flow. In higher-speed LANs,
many users find that switches are becoming a necessity. And
manufacturers have responded to that need with a raft of new fast
switches.
But even with only Fast Ethernet contenders, there are a lot of switches
out there, more than we could comfortably cover in one review. So we
decided to narrow the focus. We contacted major switch makers and
asked them to send us 100Base-TX products that were manageable, had
8 to 12 ports, and were appropriate for a medium-sized office or a
comparably sized workgroup in a larger company. Even so, it soon
became evident that we'd have to widen our horizons a bit. Different
companies have vastly different products; some designed for small
workgroups, some for large installations. There were as few as four ports
or as many as 16. Although all had at least a couple of 100-Mbps ports,
some were strictly 100 Mbps, and some were 10/100 auto-sensing. In
addition, features and manageability varied widely.
Even with the 16 switches that wound up arriving at our office, there were
still several major manufacturers who declined to participate. Most
wanted to be excluded because of upcoming products that weren't yet
ready for evaluation, but one major switch maker, Plaintree, did not
respond to our repeated attempts to contact them.
The 16 switches evaluated represent a cross-section of products available
now. With prices ranging from $995 to $21,990 and a wide variety of
features, there's something here for nearly every budget and application.
In the Box
If you're still a bit unclear on the concept, think of a switch as the analogue
of a central telephone office. Instead of handling voice, it handles data.
With a standard network hub, packets are received by the hub and then
sent to all other stations, with only the station it's addressed to accepting
it. If a hub were a telephone office, every phone in the exchange would
ring. But a switch forwards packets only to the destination it's addressed
to by keeping track of the media access control (MAC) layer addresses
of both the sender and receiver.
All switches reviewed here are essentially plug-and-play units,
automatically sniffing out and learning MAC addresses without further
user intervention. For a quick and dirty installation, it's a breeze to replace
a hub (usually the top-level unit in a stack) with a switch. But all are also
highly customizable. Most have serial console ports to which you can
connect a terminal and customize a myriad of settings. And the
most-advanced switches have full SNMP management.
All switches use dedicated memory-the port buffer-to store data as it's
received. The most common data-forwarding method is
store-and-forward, which doesn't forward data until a whole frame is
received. The delay-known as latency-is the major disadvantage of
switches, although all are designed to keep it to a minimum. Some
switches can also use other techniques for forwarding data (see the text of
the individual reviews for more information)
Although interest in evolving next-generation network technologies like
ATM and Gigabit Ethernet is beginning to expand, Fast Ethernet currently
remains the premier LAN upgrade route for a wide range of enterprises
because it delivers dramatically increased performance with minimal
infrastructure disruption at prices that please even the most steely eyed
budget watchers. And even if your budget is extremely modest, Fast
Ethernet can be integrated into your installation in stages, starting with
high-speed server links. And Fast Ethernet switches are essential parts of
the hardware mix, especially as network traffic increases with widespread
intranets and Internet access.
The switches we reviewed offer a wide range of choices for a wide range
of applications from medium-to-large workgroups all the way up to
enterprise-server farms. And prices are coming down while capabilities
are increasing. Use our features chart, beginning on page 62, to compare
all 16 of our entries and find the solution best suited for your network
needs. Remember that most Fast Ethernet switches offer auto-sensing
10/100-Mbps ports, most of which also support full-duplex connections.
These are an excellent choice for installations with a combination of 10
and 100-Mbps connections. And even if your Fast Ethernet needs are
modest, the wide range of switch choices allow you to easily match
features (SNMP, VLANs, RMON, etc.) to your current budget and
future plans.
3Com SuperStack II Switch 3000
With 12 100Base-TX ports and a price tag of almost $9,000, 3Com's
SuperStack II Switch 3000 is definitely a high-end unit designed for
serious applications in heavily loaded LANs. With a raft of features and
no 10Base-T support, this isn't a switch designed for an installation that
gently dips corporate toes into a gradual upgrade to Fast Ethernet.
The Switch 3000 is one loaded unit, offering a 256 kilobyte packet buffer
for each port, up to 16 port-based virtual LANs (VLANs), and full
SNMP support including remote monitoring (RMON) on every port
(groups 1 to 7). The Switch 3000 is just one part of a full line of matched
SuperStack II products, from hubs to routers and beyond. Apart from
basic SNMP, the line is designed to be managed with 3Com's complex,
powerful and expensive ($3,500) Transcend Enterprise Manager for
Windows software, which offers myriad features, including the ability to
set up resilient links.
The switch handles up to 4,080 MAC addresses. And because it's likely
to be used in very busy networks, the Switch 3000 uses what 3Com calls
Intelligent Flow Management (IFM) that prevents packets from being
discarded when the buffer fills up by suppressing transmissions back at the
source.
Also unique is 3Com's Priority Access Control Enabled (PACE) feature,
designed to essentially provide an "express lane" for high-bandwidth
multimedia traffic by reducing latency to a minimum and prioritizing
available bandwidth for the traffic. During setup, you can enable PACE
for the whole switch or just a single port. You also need PACE drivers for
the workstations and server, or 3Com's line of network interface cards
with integrated PACE support.
Out of the box, the Switch 3000 is easy to set up. Besides a complete
manual, there's a Quick Reference Guide that tells you how to get started
and even a quick list of default settings. As with most of the switches
reviewed here, there's a serial console port for quick setup.
On the down side, while the Switch 3000 has the contemporary look
that's becoming trendy in LAN equipment, its cooling fans are loud, and
the pitch of the fans resonated with the fans in one of our servers, creating
a beating tone that was just plain annoying. However, that's not a problem
if you're tucking the switch away in an equipment closet. In addition, the
unit's front-panel status lights are sparse; although that's not surprising in a
switch like the 3000, which most users will manage with SNMP. There's
also no 10Base-T module available for the product's expansion slot, and
the unit we tested lacked Spanning Tree support, although that's expected
to be available via a software upgrade later this year.
Accton ES3508-TX Intelligent Switch
Accton's ES3508-TX is a switch with a good range of features and
abilities-albeit with some limitations-that makes it a reasonable fit for a
variety of applications, from workgroups starting to integrate Fast
Ethernet to midsized installations. At $5,495, it's a bit pricey, but a
non-SNMP version (dubbed "Smart" instead of "Intelligent") is available
for the budget-minded at $3,875.
Out of the box, each of the switch's eight ports auto-negotiates 10 or 100
Mbps and half or full duplex.
It handles 4,096 MAC addresses, and has a 256 kilobyte packet buffer
dedicated to each port. How the unit handles packets also sets it apart.
The ES3508-TX uses adaptive cut-through switching instead of solely the
more-common store-and-forward. Essentially, this dynamically changes
the way it handles packets based on the error rate. "Clean" data gets
passed right through, small errors use fragment-free cut-through that filters
header information. Store-and-forward is also used for greatest
reliability-albeit adding latency.
Although the ES3508-TX does include SNMP support (Accton's
AccView/Open management software is available for $350), the switch
has neither VLAN nor RMON support, making it a non-starter for most
large installations. In addition, there are no expansion slots and no
redundant power supplies available. On the plus side, however, the switch
does support Spanning Tree.
Basic setup is a breeze, using the switch's serial console port. And
Accton's done an excellent job of considering the human factors in a
switch that won't necessarily be locked away in an equipment closet. The
fan is quiet enough to have it sit near a desk, and of the switches we
tested here, the ES3508-TX has the most status lights-an eight by nine
matrix of LEDs that Accton calls Status Watch. You can use them for
at-a-glance quick configuration, monitoring and diagnosis. This can be a
positive or negative, depending upon your point of view. If you're using
SNMP, all the lights don't much matter because the physical location of
the switch isn't important. But the lights can be informative indeed for a
switch handling a workgroup or small office where everything is out in the
open.
Bay Networks BayStack 350T
The BayStack 350T is a solid switch with a raft of features at a very
attractive price. Its 16 ports are all 10/100 auto-sensing and half or full
duplex, making the switch an excellent choice for a large workgroup or
medium-sized enterprise making a gradual upgrade to 100Base-T.
(Another model, the 350F, features 12 10/100 ports and a pair of
100-Mbps fiber ports.)
There's very little missing from the 350T. It supports 8,192 MAC
addresses, eight port-based VLANs, Spanning Tree, redundant links,
SNMP, and RMON on every port. Depending on your needs and your
budget, Bay has three levels of management software available: Optivity
Enterprise 7.2 ($17,995), Optivity Campus 6.2 ($3,495) and EZ-Lan 3.3
($3,495). And there's a 9-pin DIN connector on the back for the
console. Telnet support is also extensive, allowing four simultaneous
sessions and various levels of security, including password, timeout,
allowed source addresses, and failed-login lockout.
The 350T is versatile enough for integration into virtually any sized
network, but is also plug-and-play for simple setup. Its noise level is
reasonable, about on a par with a small server or workstation, so it tucks
away easily in almost any location. There's also a good selection of status
lights; each of the 16 ports shows link status, speed, half or full duplex,
and port activity.
The switch uses a standard store-and-forward technique. How the
BayStack 350T handles port buffer memory is a bit different than other
units reviewed here. Most either share memory across all ports or
dedicate a fixed amount per port. The 350T allocates 256 kilobytes of
buffer per pair of ports. This appears to be a good compromise for most
applications, keeping the cost of the switch more than reasonable while
offering performance that shouldn't bog down except in an extremely
heavy load. However, with Bay claiming an internal switch fabric
bandwidth of 1.2 gigabits per second, that's not likely to happen often.
On the downside, the 350T lacks internal expansion slots, and also
doesn't have the option of a redundant power supply. But unless the
switch is the centerpiece of a mission-critical installation, those aren't
major limitations.
Cabletron FastNET 100
The best analogy we can come up with for Cabletron products is that
they're the Humvees of the LAN world: Big, expensive, rugged and
ultra-reliable. The FastNET 100 is no exception. At $12,050, it's the
second most expensive switch we looked at in this review. In fairness,
though, Cabletron list prices have a reputation of being only a starting
point for price negotiation, and a company spokesperson told us they
expect to lower the price in the near future as the economies of mass
production kick in.
The FastNET 100 is built like a military blockhouse, eschewing trendy
curves and lines, and is also noisy, with loud fans that can be annoying
when you're sitting next to the switch. But the FastNET 100 is most likely
to be comfortably situated in a wiring closet-usually along with a suite of
other Cabletron hardware. And furthering the military analogy, the
company calls it a "tactical solution."
The FastNET 100 has 16 auto-negotiation 10/100 ports (half or full
duplex), a pair of 100Base-FX fiber ports, and a serial console port right
out in front. As you'd expect, this is a switch designed for pushing lots of
packets around without bogging down. Although defined as a
store-and-forward switch, the FastNET 100 has a pair of
Multi-technology Asynchronous Switching (MAX) application specific
integrated circuits (ASICs) inside that the company says results in minimal
latency. The switch's internal fabric is an impressive 2.56 Gbps. Total
switch memory is a shared six megabytes, allocated to ports as required,
and 8,192 MAC addresses are supported.
As you'd expect from such a high-end switch, the FastNET 100 supports
SNMP, VLANs (16) and Spanning Tree. At first glance, the lack of
RMON support seems surprising, but since most Cabletron customers
are large shops with lots of Cabletron equipment, users are likely to opt
for the company's extensive management software solutions. At $15,000
for Spectrum Enterprise Manager and $4,995 for Spectrum Element
Manager for Windows, these are ultra-serious management solutions.
Rounding out the FastNET 100's features is port trunking. This feature
allows buyers to use 100Base-TX crossover cables to trunk multiple units
and provide bandwidth up to 800 Mbps without the need for additional
hardware. The FastNET 100 supports up to eight trunk groups with two
to eight ports per trunk group.
Cisco Catalyst 5000
Cisco's Catalyst 5000 is the 500-pound gorilla of this review. This
chassis-based system is hefty and expensive, tilting the budget scales (as
tested) to the tune of $21,990. And that's just for a more-or-less basic
setup of the chassis, a supervisor engine, one power supply, and a
12-port 10/100 auto-sensing switching module.
The Catalyst 5000 appears to be built heavily enough that a
sledgehammer would do only minor damage. Obviously, this system isn't
designed for a typical workgroup or a piecemeal update; it's a wiring
closet unit designed for new installations or full upgrades, with loads of
versatility for the future.
It's difficult to do justice to the Catalyst 5000 in a few paragraphs because
the 12-slot chassis can be fitted with a seemingly infinite variety of optional
modules, including FDDI, ATM, Fast Ethernet Fibre Channel and token
ring. There's a space for a redundant power supply right out front, and a
Gigabit Ethernet module will also be available. For heavy traffic
installations, modules and power supplies can be hot-swapped.
The 10/100 module coupled with the supervisor engine offers just about
every feature imaginable. Details are in the features chart, but briefly, the
switch offers both store-and-forward and fragment-free modes, with 192
kilobytes of buffer per port. Standard SNMP support is included, and
Cisco's line of CiscoWorks for Switched Internetworks management
software packages ($995 to $1,495) are optimized for the Catalyst 5000.
Cisco has a well-deserved reputation (not to mention a hefty piece of
market share) in the high-end LAN arena. If your enterprise needs are
major and expected to grow and change, the Catalyst 5000 system offers
unmatched power and versatility, if your budget allows.
Compaq Netelligent 5606
Compaq's Fast Ethernet switch comes in two versions: one with six
100Base-TX, half- and full-duplex ports ($5,567) and the other with five
100Base-TX ports and a single 100Base-FX fiber port. An unmanaged
version, the 5506, is also available. With dedicated 100-Mbps ports this
switch is optimized for use as a backbone solution, although that doesn't
preclude its use in other applications such as a high-bandwidth
workgroup.
The 5606 is a store-and-forward switch with 256 kilobytes of buffer per
port, and it supports an impressive 6,000 MAC addresses. There's
support for six VLANs, four-group RMON, Spanning Tree, Telnet and a
serial console connection. And a handy feature is that each port has both
MDI (straight-through) and MDI-X (crossover) RJ-45 jacks. LEDs are
sparse, though; with each channel having only port activity and collision
LEDs.
In keeping with its enterprise orientation, the 5606 includes a number of
advanced features, including port mirroring, redundant links, and optional
redundant power that fits into the single expansion slot. On the SNMP
management side, the 5606 includes Compaq Netelligent Management
Software at no extra charge. The package, which works under both
Windows 95 and NT, is well designed and includes extensive help for
those new to the SNMP sphere.
The 5606 may not be fancy, but it's a solid switch that can be a good fit
for a company making the jump to Fast Ethernet. Although it doesn't have
flow control, Compaq claims the switch's built-in congestion management
software keeps the 5606 operating at maximum performance.
Digital VNswitch 900EX
Digital Equipment has a unique and unusual approach to networking
hardware in the company's VNswitch 900 family. Each of the line's
products can be used stand-alone with a clip-on power supply that turns
the units into standard 19-inch rack mounts. Or, if your needs are more
extensive, they can plug into Digital's VNbus backplane, which provides a
400-Mbps connection among components.
Since Digital doesn't have a switch that is solely 100 Mbps or one with
auto-sensing 10/100 ports, they supplied us with the closest thing
available for this review. The VNswitch 900EX has 12 switched
10Base-T ports, and two 100Base-TX, half- or full-duplex ports for
high-speed server connections. This type of solution provides an easy
upgrade to fast pipes for server or backbone connections, but doesn't
make the process of upgrading workgroups to 100 Mbps an easy one.
If you opt for the VNbus backplane, Digital's solution offers plenty of
options and power, but using a stand-alone VNswitch is an expensive
solution; although you could upgrade to the bus version later.
The basic 900EX supports up to 8,000 MAC addresses, and is a
store-and-forward switch with four megabytes of port buffer shared
across all ports. It also supports RMON, 32 VLANs, SNMP, Spanning
Tree and redundant links. There's also a serial console port and Telnet
support. A redundant power supply is only available when the switch is
used in the backplane configuration.
Although a solid product, we found the VNswitch expensive for its
abilities.
HP AdvanceStack Switch 800T
Hewlett-Packard has long been a major supplier of networking hardware.
The company's products have solid reputations, but relatively
straightforward architectures. But the new AdvanceStack Switch 800T is
an intriguing switch with a unique design and some unusual features. Most
noticeable is its aggressive modular design. The basic switch comes with
four 10/100 auto-negotiating ports. But there are eight slots in the switch,
all of which are customizable. You can add up to four more modules,
unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) or fiber, simply by loosening a few screws
and slipping in the modules.
The unit supports an impressive 10,000 MACs. It's a store-and-forward
design with a dedicated 256-kilobyte per port buffer. Other advanced
features include port mirroring, redundant links and an available redundant
power supply. There's also a serial console port.
The AdvanceStack supports Telnet and SNMP, and integrates with HP's
OpenView for serious enterprise management. But packed with the 800T
is AdvanceStack Assistant, a simpler package that works with your Web
browser but nonetheless has a great deal of power. It includes
Performance Advisor, a unique feature that analyzes your network and
makes recommendations such as moving nodes, adding switches or
upgrading to 100 Mbps.
Although the AdvanceStack supports port-based VLANs, HP has a
unique take on the technology. Getting VLANs to talk to one another
requires a router, which also provides broadcast/multicast control. In the
800T, HP has integrated Layer 3 switching to eliminate that need.
Automatic Broadcast Control (ABC) is part of the mix, controlling
broadcast data through throttling, which drops broadcasts that exceed a
pre-configured threshold, and IP/IPX broadcast reduction that reduces
broadcasts generated by IP and IPX clients and servers.
Intel Express 10/100
They make more than just microprocessors. Intel's Fast Ethernet switch is
about what you'd expect from a company with long experience in
networking hardware: a well-designed product with solid performance. It
has eight 10/100 auto-negotiating, half and full-duplex ports, each of
which has six LEDs associated with it that show just about everything
you'd ever want to know about each port-including link, transmit and
receive, 100-Mbps connection, collision and flow control. Two expansion
slots are right out front, allowing for a two-port 100Base-TX expansion
module for $1,995, or a two-port 100Base-FX fiber module for $2,495.
The Express 10/100 supports 4,096 MAC addresses and 256 VLANs.
It's a store-and-forward unit, and at first glance the 64 kilobyte buffer for
each port seems on the thin side when compared to the 256 kilobytes
common to the other switches reviewed here. On the other hand, the
switch includes flow control for maximum reliability.
There are plenty of other features, too, including port mirroring, Spanning
Tree, a front panel console port, and Telnet support. However, the
10/100 doesn't support RMON. SNMP is included, of course, and Intel's
optional LANdesk Network Manager ($995) is an excellent package for
any SNMP devices.
Lantronix LMS
Although most of the products reviewed here are usable for workgroups,
they're most comfortable in large groups or wider enterprise applications.
They're also relatively expensive. But there are alternatives if your budget
is leaner and you want to make a more-gradual evolution to 100-Mbps
switching. Case in point: the Lantronix LMS. At $995, it's the lowest-cost
switch reviewed here. And its also the smallest, not much bigger than a
small book. (The power supply is a separate "wall wart," however.)
The switch, actually called the LMS2F8-MA-01, has 10 ports-eight 10
Mbps and two auto-sensing 10/100 Mbps. The configuration makes it a
perfect choice for connecting a workgroup to the corporate backbone
using a high-speed lane or giving one or more servers more bandwidth. A
half-dozen dual-color LEDs on the top of the unit provide most of the
visual feedback you'll need.
It may be small and inexpensive, but the LMS has more muscle than you
might expect. A standard store-and-forward switch, each of the 10/100
ports has a surprisingly hefty 512 kilobyte buffer, while the remaining eight
ports share a one- megabyte buffer. The LMS also supports up to 8,192
MAC addresses. That's probably overkill for a switch like this, but you'll
certainly never run out of addresses.
There are, of course, limitations. The switch isn't manageable, and there's
no VLAN, RMON, or many other features. There's also no serial port
because there's no console support. The unit's configuration is set by a
series of DIP switches on the rear of the unit, and Lantronix has even
silk-screened all installation and switch settings on the box's bottom-a
very thoughtful touch. If you can do without the bells and whistles, the
LMS is an excellent choice for introducing fast switching to your LAN
environment.
Madge Visage 800T
Madge's full line of switches-designed and built in Israel-is extensive, but
the Visage 800T is a solid workgroup or departmental contender carrying
eight 10/100 auto-sensing ports. The early unit we tested didn't support
full duplex, but a company official says that will be available via a firmware
update in May. Its support for 32,000 MAC addresses was by far the
largest of any switch we tested.
The 800T doesn't have any expansion slots, but it's designed to integrate
with the company's line of ATM and fiber switches (or additional 800T's)
using the company's unique Exoplane, a proprietary architecture that
provides full non-blocking performance between Madge units using cables
that connect to high-density connectors on the rear of Visage units. The
company claims the Exoplane can handle 5.8 million packets per second
(Mpps). A redundant power supply is also available.
Using store-and-forward with integrated flow control, the 800T has four
megabytes of port buffer, with each pair of ports sharing one megabyte.
This scheme should allow it to easily handle the heaviest traffic. The switch
supports 256 VLANs, RMON and SNMP. Madge offers its own
management package with MultiMan for Windows ($2,495) and SMON
($995), a RMON-compliant management suite that works with
MultiMan.
Rounding out the 800T's impressive list of features is Spanning Tree
support, port mirroring and redundant links. And there's a serial console
port. The Visage is also quiet, and can easily fit into any environment. Its
front-panel lights are also unique; you use a pair of momentary contact
switches to choose which functions the eight main LEDs show. It's not
difficult to use, but getting information on the switch takes some effort. But
all in all, the 800T is a well-designed, feature-rich switch at a fair price.
Matrox Shark Switch 4
Matrox is another switch maker whose product line is targeted to
entry-level workgroups. The unit the company supplied for this review
was the Shark Switch 4, with four 10/100 ports at the rock-bottom price
of $1,199. A version with three UTP ports and a single fiber port is
available for $1,399, and there's also a special-order,
dual-UTP/dual-fiber version for $1,599.
Like the Lantronix LMS, the Shark Switch 4 is tiny and light, with a
separate wall-mount power supply. Since it doesn't need a fan, it's also
absolutely silent for non-intrusive operation in any location.
As you'd expect, the switch lacks high-end features. It's not manageable,
and doesn't support VLANs or RMON. Using a store-and-forward
design, it has a respectable two megabyte buffer that's shared among
ports as needed. Each port has collision and activity lights.
The Shark Switch 4 doesn't have a serial console port, and its setup is by
far its biggest disadvantage. Ports aren't auto-sensing, which means they
have to be manually set for 10 or 100-Mbps operation. The same goes
for full or half duplex. Matrox recommends that not more than |
