Operating instructions

14 Cisco Systems Intelligent Gigabit Ethernet Switch Module
3.3.2 Port features
These items are the ports of the Cisco Systems Intelligent Gigabit Ethernet Switch Module:
򐂰 Four external 1000BASE-T connectors for making 10/100/1000 Mbps connections to a
backbone, end stations, and servers
򐂰 Fourteen internal full-duplex Gigabit ports, one connected to each of the blade servers in
the BladeCenter unit
򐂰 Two internal full-duplex 100 Mbps ports connected to the Management Modules
3.3.3 Performance features
The performance features of the Cisco Systems Intelligent Gigabit Ethernet Switch Module
include:
򐂰 Autosensing of speed on the 10/100/1000 ports and the auto-negotiation of duplex mode
on the ports for optimizing bandwidth
򐂰 IEEE 802.3x flow control on Gigabit Ethernet ports operating in full-duplex model
򐂰 Fast EtherChannel and Gigabit EtherChannel for enhanced fault-tolerance and for
providing up to 4 Gbps of bandwidth between switches, routers, and servers
򐂰 Support for frame sizes to 1530 bytes
򐂰 Per-port broadcast-storm control for preventing a faulty end station from degrading overall
system performance with broadcast storms
򐂰 Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP) and Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) for
automatic creation of EtherChannel links
򐂰 Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) snooping support to limit flooding of IP
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
򐂰 IGMP filtering for controlling the set of multicast groups to which hosts on a switch port can
belong
򐂰 Protected port (private VLAN edge port) option for restricting the forwarding of traffic to
designated ports on the same switch
򐂰 Dynamic address learning for enhanced security
3.3.4 Redundancy
This list represents the redundancy features built into the Cisco Systems Intelligent Gigabit
Ethernet Switch Module:
򐂰 UniDirectional link detection (UDLD) on all Ethernet ports for detecting and disabling
unidirectional links caused by port faults.
򐂰 IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) for redundant backbone connections and
loop-free networks.
򐂰 IEEE 802.1s Multiple STP (MSTP) for grouping VLANs into a Spanning Tree instance and
provided for multiple forwarding paths for data traffic and load balancing.
򐂰 IEEE 802.1w Rapid STP (RSTP) for rapid convergence of the Spanning Tree by
immediately transitioning root and designated ports to the forwarding state.
򐂰 Optional Spanning Tree features are available in the Per-VLAN Spanning Tree (PVST)+,
Rapid PVST+, and MSTP modes.