* HP’s core switches: The big picture
It has been almost three years since HP started talking about a LAN equipment strategy that put intelligence at the edge of networks rather than at the core. This week, the company filled out the core.
As reported in Network World the HP ProCurve group introduced two switches whose job is really to sit at the core of a LAN and move data quickly. Network World’s Phil Hochmuth points out that the switches are based on technology HP got from Riverstone Networks last year.
The 8108fl and 8116fl InterConnect Fabric switches (HP indicates there will be more members coming in this 8100fl family) take blades of Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and they have eight and 16 slots, respectively. With a port in each blade, the switches are able to move traffic in a non-blocking way.
Meanwhile, HP continued to beef up its offerings at what it calls the intelligent edge, this time with a switch that supports Power over Ethernet (PoE), the ProCurve Switch 2600-8-PWR. It’s a stackable switch – one of many in HP’s line-up – with eight 10/100M bit/sec PoE ports and one Gigabit uplink.
PoE is used for powering IP phones, wireless access points and other equipment over the same wire that delivers communications.
Back when HP was originally touting the intelligence-at-the-edge strategy, it said a primary driver was the user focus – that is, the edge equipment handles the authentication of the users connected to it. That way, users are cleared as they first enter the network and then given the appropriate privileges. The core equipment then can focus on speed.
