Category Archives: Fiber Optic Switch

Layer 2 vs Layer 3 Switch: How to Choose for VLAN?

With the advent of VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network), network managers can logically divide the physical LAN into different broadcast domains by spanning across multiple switches or even routers. The first series of VLAN switches on the market are Layer 2 switches which operate at Layer 2 of the ISO Reference Model. Soon afterwards, Layer 3 switches emerge as alternatives for VLAN and have gained incremental popularity. Layer 2 vs Layer 3 switch, which is more suitable for VLAN? We’re gonna elaborate it in this post.

VLAN

Layer 2 Switch—Switching Layer for OSI Model

A Layer 2 switch is a type of network switch or device that works on the data link layer via OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model and utilizes MAC address to determine the path through which the frames are to be forwarded. It uses hardware based switching techniques to connect and transmit data in VLAN. By looking at the destination MAC address in the frame header, the Layer 2 switch interconnects multiple end nodes of VLAN and intelligently forwards traffic between them without unnecessary flooding of frames onto the network. Generally speaking, Layer 2 switches come with different types of interfaces like 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps, etc. They can support full-duplex communication on each of its port. They expand network by connecting to the rest of the devices in the fabric through high speed ports that can be connected to either another Layer 2 or Layer 3 switch.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Forwards packets based on the unique Media Access Control (MAC) address of each end station
  • Information is easily retrieved and data packets transferred quickly at the wire speed of the network
  • No setup or management is required
  • Cheap and easy to deploy
  • Improve security with low latency
  • Flow accounting capabilities

Cons

  • Can not apply any intelligence when forwarding packets
  • Unable to route packets based on IP address
  • Can not guarantee bandwidth to Voice over IP (VoIP) users

Layer 3 Switch—Routing Layer for Sub Network

Layer 3 switch, known as the routing layer, can provide logical partitioning of sub networks with scalability, security, and Quality of Service (QoS). As an enhancement feature, QoS goes beyond the simple packet prioritization found in CoS by providing bandwidth reservation and packet delay bounding. In Layer 3 system, the packets are sent to a specific next-hop IP address, based on destination IP address. Different from MAC addresses of Layer 2 switch, each IP packet in Layer 3 switch contains source and destination IP addresses. The backbone of the Internet, along with those of many large organizations, is built upon a Layer 3 foundation. The functions of a Layer 3 switch (or multilayer switch) combine some features of a Layer 2 switch and a router.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Use logical addressing to determine the paths to destination networks
  • Intelligent packet forwarding (routing) based on Layer 3
  • Enable a router to link different sub networks together
  • Segment a network into two or more VLANs
  • Enhance security controls to prevent unauthorized setup changes
  • Provide guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS)

Cons

  • Extra processing power and memory is required for Layer 3 switching
  • Prices are higher than for a Layer 2 switch
  • Require setup and management

Layer 2 vs Layer 3 Switch: How to Choose for VLAN?

Layer 2 vs Layer 3 switch: how to choose for VLAN? Small networks can be built using just Layer 2 devices, but most corporate networks contain a mix of Layer 2 and Layer 3 switches as illustrated in the figure below. The most significant difference between Layer 2 and Layer 3 switch is the routing method. Layer 3 switch is capable of inter-VLAN routing and does not need additional device connected like router on-a-stick. Since network architectures on Layer 2 switching allow end station connectivity, it is often practical to construct a VLAN via Layer 2 switch only. Because it can provide simple, inexpensive, high-performance connectivity for hundreds or even thousands of end stations. However, Layer 3 switches also maintained a presence at many points within a corporate network. For a while it presents minimal problems, since a majority of the data traffic stayed local to the sub network, which was increasingly being serviced by a Layer 3 switch.

layer 2 vs layer 3 network

Summary

When it comes to the choice between Layer 2 switch vs Layer 3 switch, remember that both Layer 2 and Layer 3 switch have seen the most striking infrastructure for VLAN over the past decade. Whether to choose a Layer 2 vs Layer 3 switch is dependent upon many factors, such as routing method, speed requirement, networking design, as well as your budge. But where to get reliable and high performance Layer 2 and Layer 3 network switch? FS.COM provides a full set of gigabit switch, 10gb switch, 40gb switch and 100gb switch with Layer 2 or Layer 3 feature, which can support advanced hardware based VLAN deployment.

Related Article: Layer 2 vs Layer 3 Switch: Which One Do You Need?

Deploying 10G ToR/Leaf Switch for Different Size Networks

With the migration from Gigabit Ethernet to 10 Gigabit Ethernet, cabling and network switching architectures have been reevaluated to guarantee a cost-effective and smooth transition. 10Gb ToR (Top of Rack) or leaf switch has evolved with significant performance gains and cost-per-port reduction. This post will introduce the benefits of ToR architecture and explains how to deploy 10G ToR/leaf switch for different size networks.

Why Use Top-of-Rack Architecture

ToR or leaf-spine is a network architecture design where there are only two tiers of switches between the servers and the core network. In ToR network design, a feature-rich 10GbE switch handles Layer2 and Layer3 processing, data bridging and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) for an entire rack of servers. This approach contributes to an agile infrastructure because the ToR/leaf switches can support multiple I/O interfaces, including GbE, 10GbE and 40GbE. The 10G ToR/leaf switches utilized in the ToR architecture usually come with the advantage of low power consumption, ease of scale and simplified cabling complexity. When acting as a ToR/leaf switch, each 10G Ethernet switch can be placed just one hop away from another, no need to jump up and down in the tree design, enabling improved latency and bottlenecks. With a ToR design, you can eliminate cabling nightmares, minimize bottlenecks while building a network foundation for mission-critical applications that also provides a clear path for future growth.

Top of Rack Architecture

Campus Network Applications

For campus networks applications, the 10GE switches work as aggregation or core switches in the ToR network architecture. Here we take FS S5850-48S6Q 10G ToR/leaf switch as an example to illustrate how to build a ToR network in campus networks. In the following application diagram, two FS S5850-48S6Q 10GE switches are utilized as aggregation switches as the bridge to build connections between 40G switches in the core network and gigabit switches in the access layer.

10G ToR Switch Campus Network Application

SMB (Small and Medium-Sized Business) Applications

For small and medium-sized businesses, ToR network architectures are becoming more preferable by IT managers than ever before. Because ToR architectures enable them to implement a single cabling model that can support Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet and unified network fabric today, while supporting future 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet standards as they come to market. Using ToR architecture for fiber cable management, business IT managers have the flexibility to deploy preconfigured racks with different connectivity requirements in any rack position. For example, a rack of servers running multiple Gigabit Ethernet connections can be placed next to a rack of servers with 10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE connections to each server.

Data Center Applications

In hyper-scale data centers, there might be hundreds or thousands of servers that are connected to a network. In this case, ToR/leaf switches work in conjunction with spine switches in data centers to aggregate traffic from server nodes and then connect to the core of the network. Now given that we need to build a data center fabric with a primary goal of having at least 480 10G servers in the fabric. In this case, we can use FS S8050-20Q4C as spine switch and S5850-32S2Q as ToR/leaf switch. As shown in the figure below, the connections between spine switches (FS S8050-20Q4C) and ToR/leaf switches (FS S5850-32S2Q) are 40G, while connections between the leaf switches and servers are 10G. The port numbers on each spine switch determines the number of leaf switches we can use. But the maximum amount of 10G servers we can connect to ToR/leaf switch here is 24 because the ratio of reasonable bandwidth between leaf and spine switch cannot exceed 3:1. Thus the total amount of bandwidths we can get here is 480x10G.

10G ToR Switch Data Center Application

Top-of-Rack Cabling Recommendations

ToR network architectures utilize available cabling media options with flexibility at the rack level, using various server patch cable types, while taking advantage of fiber uplinks from the rack for horizontal cabling. Investment in the cabling media for 10, 40, and 100 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity involves striking a balance among bandwidth, flexibility, and scalability. Although both fiber and copper can support 10G, 40G and 100G transmission, fiber is the recommended horizontal cabling media as it offers an optimal solution for high speed 40G and 100G transmission over relatively long distances. Note that 40G and 100G transmission calls for multiple fiber strands (OM3, OM4, and SMF fiber).

Conclusion

The choice of ToR networking architecture can substantially affect throughput, sustainability, optimum density and energy management. As the key element of building ToR networks, 10G ToR/leaf switch can help you scale up networking architecture while delivering low-latency and high-bandwidth links. FS S5850/N5850 series switches are high performance 10GbE ToR/leaf switches which can work with Broadcom, Cisco, Juniper, Arista switches, as well as other major brands. For more information about 10GbE ToR/leaf switches, please kindly visit www.fs.com.

Related Article: 10G ToR/Leaf Ethernet Switch: What Is the Right Choice?

Ethernet Switches: to Stack or Not to Stack?

Over past years, stacking has escalated from a premium feature to a core constituent of an Ethernet switch. Stack switch has become more and more popular among users. When it comes to network design, you may often face two challenges: maximizing scalability and optimizing performance. Finding the right balance can be tricky. This is why you’ve considered stacking or not stacking when managing your Ethernet switches.

What Is Switch Stacking or Stack Switch?

Stack switch is a type of switch designed to be stacked on top of one another. Stackable Ethernet switch is now well established as a stable, standards-based connectivity technology to efficiently handle and manage bandwidth-hungry applications. Stacking allows you to manage multiple switches as a single entity and provides increased bandwidth between the switches. Stack switches can be placed in networking closets and stand alone as a whole unit. The feature sets of stack switch vary depending on vendor and platform. Most stack switches support advanced functions like QoS, multicasting, and VLAN management. For instance, the following FS S3800-24T4S stack switch gigabit is a 24-Port 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit switch with QoS flow control and IP subnet-based VLAN. It supports up to 4 switches stacking and up to 96 Gigabit ports and 8 10G SFP+ ports per physical stack, providing up to 512Gbps total switching capacity for the network.

stack switch

To Stack or Not to Stack – Think Twice Before Buying

Whether an enterprise outfits its wiring closets with stack switch or not will depend on what services are needed and how much redundancy is required at the network edge. Stacking multiple switches allows for efficiency and ease of management when you do it right. The switch capacity of a stack is the total port density of the combined switches that are stacked together. For example, when you stack four 24-port switches, you will get one large 96-port switch when it comes to configuration. All these switches in the stack share a single IP address for remote administration instead of each stack unit having its own IP address.

In a small business where access to data and resources are critical, it is a wise option to choose stackable switches because they can significantly reduce downtime and make your network more resilient. In mission critical networks, if a switch within the stack went down, another switch would take over, ensuring that your network remains up and running uninterruptedly. In this way, stackable switches provide additional protection and redundancy for your network. Moreover, you can replace the breakdown switch in the stack without having your network offline for extended periods and impacting employee productivity in the process.

Approaches to Stack Ethernet Switches

Generally, there are mainly two ways to stack multiple network switches into a group. For stack switch with dedicated stacking ports, a stack cable is used to realize switch stacking among them. But only approved cable can be used as stack cable, or else it would cause damage to the switches. The other approach is to use the uplink ports on the switch to connect each switch together in the stacking system. Most stack switches on the market today can be stacked using several types of Ethernet ports including 10GBASE-T copper port, 10G SFP+ fiber port and 40G QSFP+ port as an uplink. For example, FS S3800-24F4S gigabit ethernet switch uses 4 10G SFP+ ports as uplink ports to stack between switches. Up to four of the same type of models can be stacked together via SFP+ transceivers (with fiber patch cable) or DAC cables. Here’s the video to show you how to stack FS S3800 series switches step by step.

FS.COM Stackable Managed Switch List

Model Switch Class Switching Capacity Gigabit RJ45 Ports SFP Ports SFP+ Ports Combo Ports Price
S3800-24T4S Layer2+ 128Gbps 24 N/A 4 N/A US$369
S3800-24F4S Layer2+ 128Gbps N/A 20 4 4 US$389
S5900-24S Layer3 480Gbps N/A N/A 24 N/A US$1999

Note: Please be careful about Ethernet switches in the market which are sold as “stackable” when they merely offer a single user interface, or central management interface, for getting to each individual switch unit. This approach is not stackable, but really “clustering”. You still have to configure every feature such as ACLs, QoS, Port mirroring, etc, individually on each switch.

Conclusion

As your business grows, is your network prepared to grow accordingly? Stack switches have become extremely popular for good reasons. They can simplify management and enhance switching capacity for easy network expansion. But for most customers, achieving super high availability may not be the goal. Then standalone switches are already enough for you rather than stack switches. Thus the pay-as-you-grow stack switch model is suitable for those who need flexibility, not only in their physical network, but also in the amount of traffic that is going through it.

Related Article: FS S5900-24S Stackable Switch: Affordable Option for Network Expansion

48 Port 10GB Switch Selection: What Is the Right Choice?

The advent of big data, virtualization and cloud computing are pushing higher speed network adoption. As such, data center networks are going through a profound change – in which 40GE has become ubiquitous and 10GE a must. Network managers have reaped great benefits by deploying 10G Ethernet switch at the edge of the large professional network, which makes 10G SFP+ switch a choice for speed and productivity. In the midst of various 10G Ethernet switch, a 48-port 10Gb switch is considered as an optimal solution for handling data traffic that delivers great scalability. Then how to choose the right 48 port 10gb switch? We’re going to explore it in this article.

Why Do I Need a 48 Port 10GB Switch?

10G Ethernet switch is a cost-effective solution compared to multiple Gigabit Ethernet ports, while delivers substantially better throughput and latency. It is already well established in IT industry and we’ve seen massive adoption of 10G infrastructure. Density, power and cooling of 10G SFP+ switch are key motivators for deployment of data center network. With compelling improvement in bandwidth, port density, latency and power consumption. 10G SFP+ switch has become the interconnect of choice for latency sensitive application with enhanced reliability and network performance. 10G Ethernet switch comes into various port configuration, and a 10gb 48 port switch is the most future-proofing one with abundant application in business oriented network. It increases the total available bandwidth, the reduced power consumption in cables and switch ports, and overall reduction in infrastructure costs.

48 port 10gb switch

Common 48 Port 10GB Switch Comparison

As the need for 48 port 10 GbE switch spurring, vendors also compete to offer 10G Ethernet switch with advanced function and decreased cost. Here we compare some commonly seen 48-port 10GbE switch along with FS.COM N5850-48S6Q 48 port 10GbE switch, including parameters about their port combination, switching capacity, latency, power consumption and  10Gb switch 48 port price.

Model
Edge-core AS5712-54X
Cisco WS-C3850-48XS-S
Dell Networking S4048-ON
HPE 5900AF (JC772A)
N5850-48S6Q
SFP+ Ports
48
48
48
48
48
QSFP+ Ports
6
4
6
4
6
Switch Class
L2 and L3
L3
L2 and L3
L3
L3
Switching Capacity
720 Gbps
1280 Gbps
1.44Tbps full-duplex
1280 Gbps
1.44Tbps full-duplex
Latency
720 ns
–
600ns
–
680 ns
Max Power Drew
282 W
–
234.35 W
260 W
200W
Forwarding Rate
1 Bpps
909 Mpps
1080 Mpps
–
1 Bpps
Price
$5,095.00
$7,970 00
$7,475.96
$9522.52
$4,419.00

When selecting a 10G SFP+ switch, it all comes down to two things: application and budget. Your application of the 48-port 10GE switch partially determines several factors, such as port configuration, switching capacity, power consumption and switch class. The port configuration and speed are relative to switching capacity. So you have to consider the amount of traffic to run through this 48-port 10GE switch and select one that can accommodate all the data flow. Power consumption on the other hand is also very essential as it defines the operating cost in the long run, a power efficient switch can save you a great amount of money. All the 10G Ethernet switch in the table have very similar port combination and they are all L2/L3 switches. As for these 48-port 10Gb switch price, N5850-48S6Q has unsurpassed benefits over the others.

Deep Dive into FS.COM 48 Port 10GB Switch N5850-48S6Q

This 48 port 10GE switch N5850-48S6Q is a 10G SDN switch, which is designed to meet the high-performance, availability, and network-scaling requirements of enterprise and cloud data centers. It provides full line-rate switching at Layer 2 or Layer 3 across 48 x 10GbE ports and 6 x 40GbE uplinks, delivering 1.44Tbps switching capacity for the most demanding applications. This 48 port 10GE switch can be used either as a Top-of-Rack switch, or as part of a 10GbE or 40GbE spine-leaf fabirc. All ports support full L2/L3 features, IPv4/IPv6 and OpenFlow for high scalability and Software-defined Network (SDN) for ease of operation. Besides, N5850-48S6Q 48 port 10GE switch delivers excellent low latency (680 ns) and power efficiency in a PHYless design. While support for advanced features, including MLAG, VxLAN, SFLOW, SNMP, MPLS etc, this 48 port 10G Ethernet switch is ideal for traditional or fully virtualized data center.

fs.com 48-port 10ge switch

Conclusion

48 port 10GB switch has made a great leap forward to satisfy the demand for increased network performance, reliability and scalability. The need for 10 Gigabit Ethernet spans all markets and business types, as technology marches forward, these 10G Ethernet switches will no doubt drop in cost and increase in capability. Equipped with higher level of hardware and software reliability design, FS.COM 48 port switch offers compelling reliability and scalability improvements. For more information, welcome to visit our site.

Related Article: How to Choose a Suitable 48-Port PoE Switch?

What Is a Core Switch and Why Do We Need It?

Network switches are categorized into different types according to different principles, such as fixed switch and modular switch based if you can add expansion module to it, and managed switch, smart switch and unmanaged/dumb switch depending on whether you can configure it and the complexity of the configuration. Another way to classify the type of a network switch is by the role it plays in a local area network (LAN). In this case, one switch is considered to be an access switch, an aggregation/distribution switch or a core switch. In small networks we do not see core switch. So many people are having questions about what core switches are. Do you know what is core switch? Is there only one core switch in a network? What are the differences between core switch and aggregation/access switch?

What Is Core Switch?

If we spend some time looking up dictionaries for the meaning of core switch, we will find a definition similar to “A core switch is a high-capacity switch generally positioned within the backbone or physical core of a network. Core switches serve as the gateway to a wide area network (WAN) or the Internet—they provide the final aggregation point for the network and allow multiple aggregation modules to work together (An excerpt from Techpedia).” The definition explains its high-capacity feature, the physical location and its function of connecting multiple aggregation devices in network.

What Are the Differences Between Core Switch and Other Switches?

The biggest difference between core switch and other switches is that, core switch is required to always be fast, highly available and fault tolerant since it connects all the aggregation switches. Therefore, a core switch should be a fully-managed switch. But if it is a switch not used in the core layer, it can be a smart switch or an unmanaged switch.

Another difference is that, the core switch is not always needed in a LAN while we may often have the aggregation switch and the access switch. Because in small networks that have only a couple of servers and a few clients, there’s no actual demand for a core switch vs aggregation switch. In the scenario where we don’t need the core layer, we often call it a collapsed core or collapsed backbone since the core layer and the aggregation layer are combined.

The third difference is that there’s generally only one (or two for redundancy) core switch used in a small/midsize network, but the aggregation layer and the access layer might have multiple switches. The figure below shows where the core switch locates in a network.

Core switch in the core layer

What Should Be Kept in Mind When Using Core Switch?

The first thing we should keep in mind is that core switch is urgently required in two occasions. One occasion is when the access switches are located in different places and there is a aggregation switch in each place, then we need a core switch to optimize the network. Another occasion is when the number of the access switches connecting to a single aggregation switch exceeds the performance of it, and we need to use multiple aggregation switches in a single location, then the use of core switch can reduce the complexity of the network.

With core switch and without core switch

As for specific type and number of core switch that we should adopt in a network, that depends on the scale and budget of our network, including how many servers, clients or lower layers switches we have. For example, say that a small network has 100 users and has 6 48-port Gigabit aggregation switches, a suitable core switch will be like Juniper EX2200, Cisco SG300, or FS.COM S5800-8TF12S 10GbE switch.

The second thing is that a core switch should be fully-managed, which means it should support different method of management, such as web-based management, command line interface and SNMP management. Also it should have some advanced features like support for IPv6, built-in Quality of Service (QoS) controls, Access Control Lists (ACLs) for network security.

And generally the connections to the core layer should be the highest possible bandwidth. In addition, since the core switch act as the center of a LAN, it should be able to reach any devices in the network, not directly but within the routing table. A core switch is usually connected to the WAN router.

Conclusion

In the design of a network, there might be access layer, aggregation layer and core layer. Though the core layer is not required in smaller networks, it is indispensable in medium/large networks. And the high-capacity core switch plays an important role in delivering frames/packets as fast as possible in the center of the network. Its contribution can not be underestimated especially in networks where speed, scalability and reliability are key to users.

Related Article: 48-Port 10GE Switch Selection: What Is the Right Choice?
Related Article: Optics Solutions for FS.COM 100G Switches