Routers/Switches /

Cisco's copper Gig switch arsenal grows

By Phil Hochmuth
Network World, 05/28/01

SAN JOSE - Cisco last week joined the parade of vendors that have recently released low-cost, stackable copper Gigabit Ethernet boxes.

Cisco's new switches are targeted at the network backbones of small and midsize firms, and for wiring closets of larger firms that want to aggregate switches. The products could help enterprise users run Gigabit Ethernet in their wiring closets and server farms with Category 5e (Cat5e) copper cabling instead of fiber-optic cabling, which can cost twice as much. The boxes could also let users push Gigabit Ethernet and Layer 3 switching out from the network core to the wiring closet.

In a joint announcement with Intel, Cisco introduced two 1000Base-T stackable switches, a copper Gigabit Interface Converter (GBIC) for the stackable switches and a Copper Gigabit blade for the Catalyst 4000. Cisco and Intel also announced successful interoperability testing with Cisco switches and 1000Base-T network adapters from Intel, as well as a joint marketing program through which the companies will package Cisco switches and Intel copper Gigabit Ethernet network interface cards.

Growing gigabit

Cisco introduced the Catalyst 2950 series of switches, which include four workgroup boxes with 24 10/100M bit/sec switch ports and either one or two copper Gigabit Ethernet uplinks. The switches range in price from $1,500 to $3,000.

Cisco's Catalyst 3550-12T is a 10-port, 1000Base-T Layer 3 switch with two 1000Base-T GBIC slots for uplinks to a backbone. The box is aimed at server farms or for aggregating Catalyst 2950 series switches in a wiring closet, and costs $10,000, or around $833 per port.

Cisco also introduced a 24-port 10/100/1000M bit/ sec blade for the Catalyst 4000. The blade will link servers with Gigabit Ethernet LANs and costs $9,000. Also unveiled was a 1000Base-T GBIC, which can fit in the Catalyst 2950 series and 3550 switches. It is priced at $400.

Kurt Page, telecom and network manager for the American National Bank of Texas, has tested the Catalyst 2950 and 3550 series of switches and plans to deploy them in the bank's 20 branch offices for end-user and server connections.

"We tested the copper Gigabit switches and found that they work just as well as our Gigabit-over-fiber switches," Page says. The only caveat about the new Catalysts, he adds, is that he's found that Gigabit throughput to be much more reliable on Cat5e cabling. Regular Cat5, which is installed throughout the bank's network, could not provide consistent 1000M bit/sec throughput, Page says.

Cisco was one of the first companies to introduce 1000Base-T products when it unveiled modules for the Catalyst 4000 and 6000 a year ago. Since then, a slew of companies, including 3Com, Alcatel, Asant� and Netgear, have joined the copper Gigabit market with eight-, 10- and 12-port 1000Base-T boxes with per-port costs as low as $250.

All Cisco copper Gigabit products are available now.