Return to main test page: Cisco's virtual switch smashes throughput records

Catalyst 6509 performance metrics

Exclusive Tests Shows Cisco’s Management Blade Setting Records for Recovery Times and Throughput

By David Newman, Network World Lab Alliance

Virtual Switching Reduces Complexity, Boosts Capacity
The “active/passive” redundancy model in most network designs doubles port and link requirements (at left). The redundancy protocols that must be configured include spanning tree or rapid spanning tree (STP and RSTP) at layer 2 and hot standby routing protocol (HSRP) and virtual routing redundancy protocol (VRRP) at layer 3. In contrast, Cisco’s virtual switching system creates an “active/active” design by using all available link and switch ports (at right). Other devices still use multiple physical links to connect to a virtual switch for redundancy, but now they use a Multichassis EtherChannel (MEC) in which all links are active until a failure occurs.

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