Biotech firm plans all-Catalyst 6500 net

Biotech researchers strive for consistent, predictable results in their work — deviation and outliers are the enemy.

This concept is trickling down from the labs into the campus LAN under construction at PDL BioPharma. The Fremont, Calif., biotech company is standardizing on Catalyst 6500 switches at every layer of the LAN as it builds its new corporate headquarters.

"This will really simplify our management if we have one platform that we're supporting" says Luis Chanu, global network and security architect at PDL BioPharma.

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Biotech researchers strive for consistent, predictable results in their work — deviation and outliers are the enemy.

This concept is trickling down from the labs into the campus LAN under construction at PDL BioPharma. The Fremont, Calif., biotech company is standardizing on Catalyst 6500 switches at every layer of the LAN as it builds its new corporate headquarters.

"This will really simplify our management if we have one platform that we're supporting" says Luis Chanu, global network and security architect at PDL BioPharma.

Consistency will be the key in the new network, where chassis-based Cisco switches will connect users from the closet to the aggregation layer, core and data center. Chanu says he will have to buy fewer types of switch components to support the new LAN.

Traffic behavior will be more predictable, and switch management simpler; the homogeneous LAN will eliminate inconsistencies in QoS mapping and management interfaces that were problematic in the past, he adds. Advanced features and the heftier power-supply options that Catalyst 6500s provide at the edge will also be a plus.

Mapping out the LAN

The network being built will consist of about a dozen Catalyst 6500 chassis in the wiring closets and distribution layer, and two redundant core 6500s. A single Catalyst 6500 will also connect in the company's data center. Links between the core and distribution layer will be 10G Ethernet, with multiple Gigabit links between the LAN edge and distribution layer. All desktops will get 10/100/1000Mbps feeds from the 6500 switches in the wiring closets, which will also power Cisco IP phones via PoE.

Supervisor Engine 32 (32Gbps) modules will run the edge switches, while Supervisor Engine 720 blades (720Gbps) will operate in the core. The 10G line cards connecting core and distribution layer switches will have Cisco's Distributed Forwarding Engine cards, which allow the four-port 10G blades to act as a stand-alone switch, without having to send traffic through the switch's backplane up to the Supervisor Engine in order to make packet forwarding and decisions.

Slimming down the inventory

At its current facility, the company uses a mix of Catalyst 4500s, Cisco's smaller switch chassis, and 6500s in wiring closets. These boxes support about 1,100 end users. Putting all 6500s in the new building will lessen the amount of switch components Chanu must stock for backups, while simplifying settings, such as QoS.

"It will be nice to have a single-blade type of architecture," he says. "I can buy one type of blade, and wherever I need more ports, I can just drop it in."

Chanu says that managing QoS settings from the edge to the core and data center will be easier in an all-6500 network as well. Catalyst 4500 and 6500 switches have different QoS-management technology, commands and other settings, which made it a chore to provide consistent network traffic control across the separate platforms. "It's always the little things that get you," he adds.