Cisco 3524XL - Catalyst Enterprise Edition Switch Hardware Installation Manual page 48

Network Configuration Examples
You can connect the switch to other devices and create backup paths by using
Fast Ethernet or gigabit links or Fast EtherChannel or Gigabit EtherChannel links.
Using the Hot Standby Redundancy Protocol (HSRP), you can create backup
paths between Catalyst 4908G-L3 switches. Figure 1-21 illustrates three
configuration examples for using the Catalyst 3500 XL switches to create the
following:
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Catalyst 3500 Series XL Hardware Installation Guide
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Cost-effective wiring closet—A cost-effective way to connect many users to
the wiring closet is to connect up to nine Catalyst 3500 XL switches through
GigaStack GBIC connections. When you use a stack of Catalyst 3548 XL
switches, you can connect up to 432 users. To preserve connectivity between
the switches in case one switch in the stack fails, connect the bottom switch
to the top switch to create a GigaStack loopback.
Using gigabit GBIC modules on two of the switches, you can have redundant
uplink connections to a gigabit backbone switch such as the
Catalyst 3508G XL switch. If one of the redundant connections fails, the
other can serve as a backup path. You can configure the stack members and
the Catalyst 3508G XL switch as a switch cluster to manage them through a
single IP address.
High-performance workgroup—For users who require high-speed access to
network resources, use gigabit GBIC modules to connect the switches
directly to a backbone switch in a star configuration. Each switch in this
configuration provides users a dedicated 1-Gbps connection to network
resources in the backbone. Compare this with the switches in a GigaStack
configuration, where the 1-Gbps connection is shared among the switches.
Using gigabit GBIC modules also provides flexibility in media and distance
options:
1000BaseSX GBIC module: Fiber connections of up to 550 m
–
– 1000BaseLX/LH GBIC module: Fiber connections of up to 10 km
1000BaseZX GBIC module: Fiber connections of up to 100 km
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Redundant gigabit backbone—To enhance network reliability and load
balancing for different VLANs and subnets, you can connect the
Catalyst 3500 XL switches, again in a star configuration, to two backbone
switches. If one of the backbone switches fails, the second backbone switch
preserves connectivity between the switches and network resources.
Chapter 1 Product Overview
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