From the Manufacturer

10G Ethernet Switching for the Largest Enterprises

The 3Com Switch 8807 modular LAN switch delivers high performance, line-rate 10-Gigabit and Gigabit switching and routing in a highly scalable, flexible, modular chassis for the enterprise core, capable of supporting network backbones with more than 10,000 nodes.

This Starter Kit comes with a 7-slot chassis and preinstalled single switch fabric, power supply, and fan tray. Up to five Switch 8800 I/O switching modules, ordered separately, can be installed in the payload slots.

You can configure the switch with up to 96 Gigabit ports, 192 twisted-pair Fast Ethernet ports or a combination of both. Copper and fiber Gigabit are supported. Built-in wire-speed switch fabric provides hardware-based packet filtering and forwarding, while packet routing is performed by on-board ASICs, which are many times faster than traditional CPU-based routers.

A redundant fabric is an option available for the Switch 8807; dual Switch 8800 redundant fabrics operate in an active/active load-sharing fashion, doubling performance of the switch while giving highest resiliency.

Other options include redundant power supplies, SFPs, XENPAK and XFP 10G Ethernet transceivers, enhanced feature software, and spares.

• Backplane capacity of up to 600 Gbps, and 300 Gbps bandwidth (with dual fabrics); maximum aggregate throughput 179 Mpps
• 7-slot modular switch, with two fabric and five payload slots
• Local switching on modules: reduces congestion to enable applications to run faster, improving the quality of video and voice traffic
• IEEE 802.3ae 10 Gigabit modules allow for ultra-high bandwidth switch-to-switch connections
• Hardware Multicast Routing: reduced packet loss and latency times are vital for voice and video
• Network Login: blocks all packets onto the network until users are authenticated (IEEE 802.1X RADIUS) to increase network security and enables user accountability
• Access Control Lists (ACL's): constrains users to areas of the network they are authorized for, using Layer 2/3/4 content-based packet prioritization and traffic filtering
• Layer 3 Protocol Authentication: MD5 authentication prevents unauthorized Layer 3 devices joining the network, reducing snooping
• Traffic classification: rule based packet identification (e.g. voice) and prioritization to improve quality, or block unwanted applications
• Bandwidth limitation: both input and output queues control traffic and prevent saturation based on application or location
• Bandwidth management: both input and output queues provide packet prioritization and management to prevent packet discard or delay due to congestion; vital for voice and video
• Switching fabric redundancy available for all chassis, with purchase of second 3Com Switch 8800 360 Gbps Fabric
• BGP4 (Border Gateway Protocol version 4), IS-IS (Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System), and SNMP v3 (Simple Network Management Protocol version 3) encryption available with purchase of 3Com Switch 8800 Advanced Feature Software
• For enhanced graphical management with extended functionality, 3Com Switch Manager, available for purchase with 3Com Network Administrator or 3Com Network Director, is recommended. For smaller networks, graphical management of the switch can be done with 3Com Network Supervisor