The basic knowledge of

switches
Network Switching
Switches can be a valuable asset to networking. Overall, they can
increase the capacity and speed of your network. However,
someone even dont know what is the switch or they take
switching as a cureall for network issues. Here some basic
knowledge of switches will be given to you.
!hat is a Switch"
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Switches occupy the same place in the network as hubs. #nlike
hubs, switches e$amine each packet and process it accordingly
rather than simply repeating the signal to all ports. Switches map
the %thernet addresses of the nodes residing on each network
segment and then allow only the necessary traffic to pass through
the switch. !hen a packet is received by the switch, the switch
e$amines the destination and source hardware addresses and
compares them to a table of network segments and addresses. &f
the segments are the same, the packet is dropped or 'filtered()
if the segments are different, then the packet is 'forwarded( to
the proper segment. *dditionally, switches prevent bad or misaligned
packets from spreading by not forwarding them.
+iltering packets and regenerating forwarded packets enables
switching technology to split a network into separate collision
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domains. The regeneration of packets allows for greater distances
and more nodes to be used in the total network design, and
dramatically lowers the overall collision rates. &n switched networks,
each segment is an independent collision domain. This also allows for
parallelism, meaning up to onehalf of the computers connected to
a switch can send data at the same time. &n shared networks all
nodes reside in a single shared collision domain.
%asy to install, most switches are self learning. They determine the
%thernet addresses in use on each segment, building a table as
packets are passed through the switch. This 'plug and play(
element makes switches an attractive alternative to hubs.
Switches can connect different network types ,such as %thernet
and +ast %thernet- or networks of the same type. .any switches
today offer highspeed links, like +ast %thernet, which can be used
to link the switches together or to give added bandwidth to
important servers that get a lot of traffic. * network composed of
a number of switches linked together via these fast uplinks is called
a 'collapsed backbone( network.
/edicating ports on switches to individual nodes is another way to
speed access for critical computers. Servers and power users can
take advantage of a full segment for one node, so some networks
connect high traffic nodes to a dedicated switch port.
+ull duple$ is another method to increase bandwidth to dedicated
workstations or servers. To use full duple$, both network interface
cards used in the server or workstation and the switch must
support full duple$ operation. +ull duple$ doubles the potential
bandwidth on that link.
0eneral 1enefits of Network Switching
Switches replace hubs in networking designs, and they are more
e$pensive. So why is the desktop switching market doubling ever
year with huge numbers sold" The price of switches is declining
precipitously, while hubs are a mature technology with small price
declines. This means that there is far less difference between
switch costs and hub costs than there used to be, and the gap is
narrowing.
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Since switches are self learning, they are as easy to install as a
hub. 2ust plug them in and go. *nd they operate on the same
hardware layer as a hub, so there are no protocol issues.
There are two reasons for switches being included in network
designs. +irst, a switch breaks one network into many small
networks so the distance and repeater limitations are restarted.
Second, this same segmentation isolates traffic and reduces
collisions relieving network congestion. &t is very easy to identify
the need for distance and repeater e$tension, and to understand
this benefit of network switching. 1ut the second benefit, relieving
network congestion, is hard to identify and harder to understand
the degree by which switches will help performance. Since all
switches add small latency delays to packet processing, deploying
switches unnecessarily can actually slow down network performance.
So the ne$t section pertains to the factors affecting the impact of
switching to congested networks.
*dvanced Switching Technology &ssues
There are some technology issues with switching that do not affect
345 of all networks. .a6or switch vendors and the trade
publications are promoting new competitive technologies, so some of
these concepts are discussed here.
.anaged or #nmanaged
.anagement provides benefits in many networks. 7arge networks
with mission critical applications are managed with many
sophisticated tools, using SN.8 to monitor the health of devices on
the network. Networks using SN.8 or 9.ON ,an e$tension to SN.8
that provides much more data while using less network bandwidth to
do so- will either manage every device, or 6ust the more critical
areas. :7*Ns are another benefit to management in a switch. *
:7*N allows the network to group nodes into logical 7*Ns that
behave as one network, regardless of physical connections. The
main benefit is managing broadcast and multicast traffic. *n
unmanaged switch will pass broadcast and multicast packets through
to all ports. &f the network has logical grouping that are different
from physical groupings then a :7*Nbased switch may be the best
bet for traffic optimi;ation.
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*nother benefit to management in the switches is Spanning Tree
*lgorithm. Spanning Tree allows the network manager to design in
redundant links, with switches attached in loops. This would defeat
the self learning aspect of switches, since traffic from one node
would appear to originate on different ports. Spanning Tree is a
protocol that allows the switches to coordinate with each other so
that traffic is only carried on one of the redundant links ,unless
there is a failure, then the backup link is automatically activated-.
Network managers with switches deployed in critical applications
may want to have redundant links. &n this case management is
necessary. 1ut for the rest of the networks an unmanaged switch
would do <uite well, and is much less e$pensive.
Storeand+orward vs. =utThrough
7*N switches come in two basic architectures, cutthrough and
storeandforward. =utthrough switches only e$amine the
destination address before forwarding it on to its destination
segment. * storeandforward switch, on the other hand, accepts
and analy;es the entire packet before forwarding it to its
destination. &t takes more time to e$amine the entire packet, but it
allows the switch to catch certain packet errors and collisions and
keep them from propagating bad packets through the network.
Today, the speed of storeandforward switches has caught up
with cutthrough switches to the point where the difference
between the two is minimal. *lso, there are a large number of
hybrid switches available that mi$ both cutthrough and store
andforward architectures.
1locking vs. Non1locking Switches
Take a switchs specifications and add up all the ports at
theoretical ma$imum speed, then you have the theoretical sum total
of a switchs throughput. &f the switching bus, or switching
components cannot handle the theoretical total of all ports the
switch is considered a 'blocking switch(. There is debate whether
all switches should be designed nonblocking, but the added costs
of doing so are only reasonable on switches designed to work in the
largest network backbones. +or almost all applications, a blocking
switch that has an acceptable and reasonable throughput level will
work 6ust fine.
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=onsider an eight port >?@>?? switch. Since each port can
theoretically handle A?? .bps ,full duple$- there is a theoretical
need for >B?? .bps, or >.B 0bps. 1ut in the real world each port
will not e$ceed 4?5 utili;ation, so a C?? .bps switching bus is
ade<uate. =onsideration of total throughput versus total ports
demand in the real world loads provides validation that the switch
can handle the loads of your network.
Switch 1uffer 7imitations
*s packets are processed in the switch, they are held in buffers. &f
the destination segment is congested, the switch holds on to the
packet as it waits for bandwidth to become available on the
crowded segment. 1uffers that are full present a problem. So some
analysis of the buffer si;es and strategies for handling overflows is
of interest for the technically inclined network designer.
&n real world networks, crowded segments cause many problems, so
their impact on switch consideration is not important for most
users, since networks should be designed to eliminate crowded,
congested segments. There are two strategies for handling full
buffers. One is 'backpressure flow control( which sends packets
back upstream to the source nodes of packets that find a full
buffer. This compares to the strategy of simply dropping the
packet, and relying on the integrity features in networks to
retransmit automatically. One solution spreads the problem in one
segment to other segments, propagating the problem. The other
solution causes retransmissions, and that resulting increase in load
is not optimal. Neither strategy solves the problem, so switch
vendors use large buffers and advise network managers to design
switched network topologies to eliminate the source of the problem
congested segments.
7ayer D Switching
* hybrid device is the latest improvement in internetworking
technology. =ombining the packet handling of routers and the speed
of switching, these multilayer switches operate on both layer A and
layer D of the OS& network model. The performance of this class of
switch is aimed at the core of large enterprise networks.
Sometimes called routing switches or &8 switches, multilayer
switches look for common traffic flows, and switch these flows on
the hardware layer for speed. +or traffic outside the normal flows,
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the multilayer switch uses routing functions. This keeps the higher
overhead routing functions only where it is needed, and strives for
the best handling strategy for each network packet.
.any vendors are working on high end multilayer switches, and the
technology is definitely a 'work in process(. *s networking
technology evolves, multilayer switches are likely to replace routers
in most large networks.
More related:
Huawei S2700 Series Switches Overview
Huawei S2300 vs S3300 vs S5300 vs S9300
Huawei S9300 Terabit Routing Switches
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