Extreme switch packs speed, reliability

Extreme Networks this week is expected to launch new switch chassis aimed at letting users link wiring closets directly to the LAN core via 10G Ethernet, while providing low latency and five-nines connectivity for IP phones, PCs and other network devices at the LAN edge.

The Aspen 8800 switch series could help businesses deploy IP telephony, gigabit to the desktop and Wi-Fi access points with high-density 10/100/1000M bit/sec blades and Power over Ethernet (PoE) on each port. The boxes are part of a new LAN architecture Extreme is pushing, in which edge chassis link to a core switch via 10G Ethernet and use carrier-based technology for providing SONET-comparable failover capabilities. Extreme says this approach reduces switches on a network by eliminating aggregation layer boxes while making connections faster and easier to manage.

The Aspen switches come in 10- and six-slot configurations. Line cards support up to 48 ports of 10/100/1000M bit/sec Ethernet and PoE. A four-port 10G Ethernet blade is also available. Aspen is the second product line to run Extreme's XOS switch operating system - a modular, Unix-based operating system - introduced on its BlackDiamond 10K switch last year.

The Aspen boxes also support Extreme's Ethernet Automatic Protection Switching (EAPS) protocol, a Layer 2 switching technology developed for metropolitan Ethernet service provider networks. EAPS lets Ethernet switches be configured in a ring, similar to SONET networks, and allows for failover of a link in 50 millisec (the same time it takes a SONET network to reconfigure a link).

Five Aspen switches will be installed in wiring closets in a new corporate facility at Luxottica Retail in Cincinnati, which operates LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut and Luxottica stores in the U.S. The boxes will support PC, IP telephone and wireless endpoints for up to 600 employees, says Stephen Bosch, the company's enterprise architect.

Luxottica Retail plans to install Aspen switches at the edge, with dual-homed Gigabit Ethernet connections to two Extreme BlackDiamond switches in the core. EAPS will create a virtual ring among each Aspen, and the two core boxes. Six hundred Avaya IP phones will run on the flat, Layer 2 LAN segment with Avaya IP PBXs only two hops away, attached to Extreme BlackDiamond switches in the core. Other applications will run on the company's Layer 3 LAN segments.

"Having all voice on a that flat EAPS network will let us segment and isolate that traffic and ensure it gets the highest QoS," Bosch says.

The Aspen switches support several security and authentication features and standards, including 802.1x and media access control authentication, which lets administrators track what clients, either wired or wireless, can gain access through a switch port.

The switches also can apply network policies to multiple devices trying to access the network through one port.

Extreme also says a mix of hardware and software features can let an Aspen 8800 series switch run with only 5.26 minutes of downtime over a year - the vaunted five-nines. The modules include redundant power supplies, fans and dual management/switch fabric modules, which provide instant failover, according to Varun Nagaraj, Extreme's vice president of product management.