Cisco Systems has unveiled a new switching engine at the ComNet
Conference and Expo in Washington, USA, designed to give
enterprises greater control over their converged networks.
Dubbed Catalyst 4000 Supervisor Engine III, the new product is a
self-contained hardware module that can be plugged into the
company's existing line of Layer 2 gigabit Ethernet switches. By
doing so, customers can upgrade any of their high-density 10/100
Catalyst 4000 switches to handle Layer 3 routing functions.
"This announcement is a big deal for the Cisco installed base that
wants to [upgrade] or is considering upgrading their capabilities,"
said David Passmore, research director of Utah-based analyst
company The Burton Group. "Layer 3 services like quality of service
(QoS) are starting to become more important for enterprises,
especially those considering putting in Ethernet-based phones on
the LAN."
By virtue of upgrading the Catalyst 4000 switches, first introduced
in January 1999, the new switching engine allows large enterprises
and Metro Ethernet providers to offer services such as QoS,
security, and multi-layer switching. Ultimately, the enhancement
allows an enterprise to offer converged voice, data, and video
services such as VoIP from the desktop.
Cisco's idea is that by placing a control module in the wiring
closet, network administrators can have more and finer control of
their traffic from the edge, rather than from the core. Supervisor
III allows customers to differentiate LAN traffic types and
prioritise based on their own requirements.
"Resource-hungry applications can now be controlled, which is very
important in a converged environment," said Les Poltrack, director
of marketing for the gigabit switching business unit at Cisco.
"This is done by performing both inbound and outbound policing of
traffic."