Cisco bolsters Catalyst switches with PoE, 10 Gigabit

Stackables support Cisco's new IOS Software Activation feature, Power over Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

Cisco this week juiced up its Catalyst switch line with gear that boosts Power-over-Ethernet support, backup power and failover, and 10G Ethernet connectivity at the LAN edge.

New Catalyst 3750-E and 3560-E switches from Cisco target dense PoE deployments, where a majority of ports on a switch require in-line power for attached devices, such as IP phones or wireless LAN access points. These switches offer twice the PoE support as previous models and include expanded 10G Ethernet uplink options. In addition, Cisco has beefed up the power supplies on its Catalyst 6500 series chassis to power as many as 420 ports in a chassis with PoE.

Gear also being launched includes:

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Cisco this week juiced up its Catalyst switch line with gear that boosts Power-over-Ethernet support, backup power and failover, and 10G Ethernet connectivity at the LAN edge.

New Catalyst 3750-E and 3560-E switches from Cisco target dense PoE deployments, where a majority of ports on a switch require in-line power for attached devices, such as IP phones or wireless LAN access points. These switches offer twice the PoE support as previous models and include expanded 10G Ethernet uplink options. In addition, Cisco has beefed up the power supplies on its Catalyst 6500 series chassis to power as many as 420 ports in a chassis with PoE.

Gear also being launched includes:

* Redundant Power System (RPS) 2300, a backup power supply and power-management device for Cisco PoE switches
* Catalyst 3560 Compact Switch and Catalyst 2960 Compact Switch, for deployment in tight spaces or public areas
* A 10G Ethernet-enabled Supervisor Engine for the Catalyst 4500 chassis, plus advanced IOS software imaging for the device

Slide show: Cisco Gear Guide

The Catalyst 3750-E comes in 24- and 48-port versions. Each has 10/100/1000Mbps autosensing ports and modular port slots, which can accept dual-port Gigabit Ethernet or single-port 10G Ethernet uplinks. The switch stacks with as many as eight other 3750-E switches or older versions of the Catalyst 3750, with Cisco’s StackWise interconnection technology. This lets switches be linked by a common 64Gbps interconnected backplane while being managed and configured as a single logical network device.

The Catalyst 3750 series is the key LAN building block at Duke University in Durham, N.C., which uses hundreds of 3750 switches in wiring closets and data centers (see related story). Upgrades to the switch will better support the university’s WLAN infrastructure and its expansion of 10G Ethernet across the campus, says Kevin Miller, senior manager of network services at Duke.

“10G uplinks [are] going to be critical in some of our data-center locations and in our research departments around campus,” Miller says. The school’s current backbone is a 20Gbps ring (five Catalyst 6500s connected with dual 10G Ethernet fibers). However, 10G is not deployed widely beyond the ring, to campus buildings or research facilities, where bandwidth needs are exploding.

For example, Miller says, “we’re talking about, literally, hundreds of megabits per second, sustained,” Duke physicists download data sets from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy research lab. “Supporting things like that within the overall network is making us look at 10G.”

Besides the core Catalyst 6500s, most switches on the Duke campus are stackable 3750-series devices. Miller likes the fact that the 3750-E will be compatible with his network’s older StackWise 3750 switches. For anticipated 10G deployments, the 3750-E’s new 64Gbps interconnect — upgraded from the previous 32Gbps support — also will be helpful, he adds.

The Catalyst 3650-E’s features are similar to those of the 3750-E — as many as 48 ports of 10/100/1000Mbps PoE, and dual 10G Ethernet — except that the switches are stand-alone, and cannot be linked with StackWise technology.