Physical Characteristics: Physical characteristics describe the basic form and function of the product
Device Class: Describes the basic functionality of the switch, such as Layer-2, Layer-2+, or Layer 3
Primary Target Market: Describes where the switch is most likely to be positioned in a sales environment, such as Wiring Closet or Enterprise Backbone/Data Center
All: Qos Features: Quality of service features are critical to ensuring guaranteed and timely delivery of bandwidth and latency sensitive traffic
Total number of transmit queues per port: transmit queues provide quality of service for packets exiting the switch
Total number of receive queues per port: receive queues preserve quality of service for packets entering the switch
Does the product have one or more strict priority queues?: strict priority delivers guaranteed delivery above and beyond other queues in the system, useful for voice traffic
Rate Limiting Support: rate limiting allows the network administrator to artificially limit the throughput of a port to prevent network congestion or abuse
Rate Limiting Granularity: rate limiting typically is set in units of throughput. More granular limits allow for finer-grained control over traffic
Classify by IP DSCP/TOS?: IP Type of Service and DSCP fields provide quality of service at the TCP/IP layer
Write/re-write IP DSCP/TOS?: IP Type of Service and DSCP fields provide quality of service at the TCP/IP layer
All: Protocol Support: Standards based protocols ensure interoperability with other switches and third party devices. Protocols listed here have been identified by major IT organizations as key technologies that are NOT necessarily supported universally. Many other protocols are supported by all switch vendors.
802.1w Fast Spanning Tree: fast spanning tree significantly reduces the convergence time of a network in the event of a failure
802.1s per VLAN Spanning Tree: per VLAN spanning trees allow for multi-netted backbone links with resiliency on a per-VLAN basis
802.3ad Trunking: 802.3ad standards trunking ensures interoperability with other switching products
802.1x User Authentication: 802.1X provides standards-based authentication of the user to the network before network traffic is passed
Network Login: network login provides an HTTP based method for logging into the network when 802.1X is not present on the client
IGMP Snooping: IGMP snooping reduces network traffic when multicast is deployed
IP Routing: switches that can route IP can connect multiple networks or VLANs without forwarding the traffic back to a router
IP Routing Protocols: when routing is supported, a standard method for distributing routing information must be provided
All: Interface Support: Interface support describes the modular or fixed ports available on the product
10/100Base-T: 10/100 line card port count(s)
10/100Base-T with 802.3af: 10/100 with power-over-ethernet line card port count(s)
100Base-FX: 100Base-FX fiber line card port count(s)
10/100/1000Base-T: 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet line card port count(s)
10/100/1000Base-T with 802.3af: 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet port count(s) with POE
1000Base-X (GBIC or SFP): 1000Base-SX,LX,LH,etc line card port count(s)
10G - fixed optics: 10 Gigabit Ethernet fixed optic line card port count(s)
10G - Modular: 10 Gigabit Ethernet modular optic line card port count(s)
Other (specify type and port count): other types of line-cards which provide connectivity
Special Modules (non-line-cards): other types of modules which provide advanced IP services
Fixed Switch:High Availability: High Availability features enhance network uptime
Redundant Power Supplies?: Describes whether the switch supports redundant power supplies either internally or externally
Non-Stop Code Upgrade: Describes whether the switch can sustain a code upgrade without incurring network downtime
Fixed Switch:Performance: switch performance determines the overall responsiveness of the network
Aggregate switch throughput: switch throughput is the amount of data that can be pushed through the switch at any given instant
Forwarding Rate: forwarding rate is the number of packets that can be pushed through the switch in a second
Non-Blocking Wire-speed?: a non-blocking, wire speed switch will perform optimally regardless of traffic load
Switch Forwarding Latency: forwarding latency determines how long the switch holds the packet before moving it to the output port
Fixed Switch:Pricing: Pricing is standard list pricing when available, or street pricing, when noted
Switch Price: The standard list price of the switch in a standard configuration
Expansion module pricing: The standard list price of any common expansion modules that are typically purchased with the switch
Chassis-Specific Characteristics: Features that are specific to a chassis
Total number of slots in chassis: the total number of expansion slots in the chassis
Reserved Slots: the number of slots reserved specifically for management modules or fabrics
Chassis:Fabric Module: In a chassis, the switch fabric provides the essential connectivity between the line cards. The fabric may also play other critical roles in switch operation
Fabric Type: Different fabrics offer different levels of performance and scalability
Fabric Location: The location of the switch fabric impacts how fault tolerant and servicable the switch is should the switch fabric fail
Fabric Redundancy: Products designed to operate with 'carrier class' reliability may offer two or more switch fabrics to minimize the impact of a switch fabric failure
Chassis: High Availability: High availability features reduce downtime in the event of a device failure
Hot-Swap Fan Trays: Fan trays provide cooling to the switch. Hot swappable fan trays can be replaced without powering the switch down
Hot-Swap Line Cards: Line cards provide connectivity between nodes. Hot swappable line cards allow a failed card to be replaced without rebooting the system
Hot-Swap Management Module: Management modules provide switch core software functions and route table maintenance. Hot swappable management modules reduce downtime by enabling one management module to be replaced while the other assumes the load
Hot-Swap Fabric Module: The switch fabric is the heart of the switching system. Hot swappable fabrics enable high availability by ensuring connectivity while a failed module is being replaced, and allow the replacement without a reboot
Hot-Swap Power Supplies: Power supplies distribute power to the elements in the switch. Hot swappable power supplies allow for upgrades and replacements without interrupting network connectivity
Hot-Swap Other: Other components in the switch may be hot swappable, allowing for non-stop upgrades and replacements in the event of a device failure
Minimum number of power supplies: the minimum number of power supplies required to operate a fully loaded chassis
Maximum number of power supplies: the maximum number of power supplies supported by the chassis
Power supply load distribution: Some power supplies operate in standby mode, while others distribute the load between all available power supplies in the system
Non-Stop Code Upgrade: non stop code upgrades allow for new switch operating software to be loaded on the switch without interrupting network connectivity, and without requiring a reboot to enable the new code.
Chassis: Performance: Performance determines the overall capacity of the switch
Backplane size : The backplane is a set of physical connections (traces) and/or silicon which provide connectivity between line cards
Forwarding Rate: The forwarding rate is the maximum number of packets per second that the switch fabric can process simultaneously.
Switch Forwarding Latency: switch latency directly impacts the performance of delay sensitive traffic such as voice over IP
Chassis: Pricing: All prices are list price
Bare Chassis Configuration: The bare chassis price includes everything the customer needs to get started with the switch, but no additional line cards. This cost represents the initial investment the customer must make before deploying the switch.
10/100Base-T line card price (non-PoE): the list price of non-power-over-ethernet 10/100 line card(s)
10/100Base-T line card price (PoE): the list price of power-over-ethernet enabled 10/100 line cards
10/100/1000Base-T line card price: the list price of 1000Base-T copper gigabit line card(s)
1000Base-X GBIC/SFP line card price: the list rpice of 1000Base-X fiber gigabit line cards, sans GBICs
10 Gig modular line card price: the list price of 10 gigabit modular optic line cards
All: Support: Support offerings include standard warranty and extended support contracts
Standard warranty: Standard warranty provides coverage from the date of purchase for hardware defects and DOA units, and initial software support
Enterprise maintenance contract: maintenance contracts extend warranty coverage beyond the initial warranty period, and provide faster turnaround for product replacement and service
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