Installation guide

Description of Software Features

1-5

Note: This switch allows 255 user-manageable VLANs. One other VLAN (VLAN ID

4093) is reserved for switch clustering.

Traffic Prioritization – This switch prioritizes each packet based on the required

level of service, using four priority queues with strict priority or Weighted Round

Robin Queuing. It uses IEEE 802.1p and 802.1Q tags to prioritize incoming traffic

based on input from the end-station application. These functions can

be used to

provide independent priorities for delay-sensitive data and best-effort data.

This switch also supports several common methods of prioritizing layer 3/4 traffic to

meet application requirements. Traffic can be prioritized based on the DSCP field in

the IP frame. When these services are enabled, the priorities are mapped to a Class

of Service value by this switch, and the traffic then sent to the corresponding output

queue.

Quality of Service – Differentiated Services (DiffServ) provides policy-based

management mechanisms used for prioritizing network resources to meet the

requirements of specific traffic types on a per-hop basis. Each packet is classified

upon entry into the network based on access lists, IP Precedence or DSCP values,

or VLAN lists. Using access lists allows you select traffic based on Layer 2, Layer 3,

or Layer 4 information contained in each packet. Based on network policies, different

kinds of traffic can be marked for different kinds of forwarding.

Multicast Filtering – Specific multicast traffic can be assigned to its own VLAN to

ensure that it does not interfere with normal network traffic and to guarantee

real-time delivery by setting the required priority level for the designated VLAN. This

switch uses IGMP Snooping and Query to manage multicast group registration. It

also supports Multicast VLAN Registration (MVR) which allows common multicast

traffic, such as television channels, to be transmitted across a single network-wide

multicast VLAN shared by hosts residing in other standard or private VLAN groups,

while preserving security and data isolation for normal traffic.

Tunneling – Configures tunnels for customer traffic crossing the service provider’s

network using IEEE 802.1Q.

IEEE 802.1Q Tunneling (QinQ) – This feature is designed for service providers

carrying traffic for multiple customers across their networks. QinQ tunneling is used

to maintain customer-specific VLANs and Layer 2 protocol configurations even when

different customers use the same internal VLAN IDs. This is accomplished by

inserting Service Provider VLAN (SPVLAN) tags into the customer’s frames when

they enter the service provider’s network, and then stripping the tags when the

frames leave the network.

Link Layer Discovery Protocol – LLDP is used to discover basic information about

neighboring devices within the local broadcast domain. LLDP is a Layer 2 protocol

that advertises information about the sending device and collects information

gathered from neighboring network nodes it discovers.