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Catalyst 3550 Multilayer Switch Software Configuration Guide
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Chapter 1 Overview
Features
Performance
• Autosensing of port speed and autonegotiation of duplex mode on all switch ports for optimizing bandwidth
• IEEE 802.3X flow control on all Ethernet ports
• EtherChannel for enhanced fault tolerance and for providing up to 8 Gbps (Gigabit EtherChannel) or 800 Mbps (Fast
EtherChannel) full duplex of bandwidth between switches, routers, and servers
• Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP) for automatic creation of EtherChannel links
• Per-port storm control for preventing broadcast, multicast, and unicast storms
• Port blocking on forwarding unknown unicast and multicast traffic
• Cisco Group Management Protocol (CGMP) server support and Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) snooping
for IGMP versions 1 and 2:
–
(For CGMP devices) CGMP for limiting multicast traffic to specified end stations and reducing overall network
traffic
–
(For IGMP devices) IGMP snooping for limiting flooding of multicast traffic
• Multicast VLAN registration (MVR) to continuously send multicast streams in a multicast VLAN while isolating the
streams from subscriber VLANs for bandwidth and security reasons
• IGMP filtering for controlling the set of multicast groups to which hosts on a switch port can belong
• System Database Management (SDM) templates for allocating system resources to maximize support for user-selected
features
Manageability
• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) for automating configuration of switch information (such as IP address,
default gateway, host name, and Domain Name System [DNS] and Trivial File Transfer Protocol [TFTP] server names)
• Directed unicast requests to a DNS server for identifying a switch through its IP address and its corresponding host name
and to a TFTP server for administering software upgrades from a TFTP server
• Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) for identifying a switch through its IP address and its corresponding Media Access
Control (MAC) address
• Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) versions 1 and 2 for network topology discovery and mapping between the switch and
other Cisco devices on the network
• Network Time Protocol (NTP) for providing a consistent timestamp to all switches from an external source
• Cisco IOS File System (IFS) for providing a single interface to all file systems that the switch uses
• In-band management access through CMS
• In-band management access through up to 16 simultaneous Telnet connections for multiple command-line interface
(CLI)-based sessions over the network
• In-band management access through Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) versions 1 and 2c get and set
requests
• Out-of-band management access through the switch console port to a directly attached terminal or to a remote terminal
through a serial connection or a modem
Note For additional descriptions of the management interfaces, see the “Management Options” section on page 1-5.
Table 1-1 Features (continued)
