CHAPTER
1-1
Catalyst 2900 Series XL Hardware Installation Guide
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1
Product Overview
This chapter provides the following topics that describe the
Catalyst 2900 series XL switches, hereafter referred to as the switches.
• Switch features, including management options
• Descriptions of the front and rear panels
• Descriptions of the LEDs
Features
The switches are stackable 10/100 Ethernet switches to which you can connect
workstations, Cisco IP Phones, and other network devices such as servers,
routers, and other switches. The 2900 XL LRE switches employ Long-Reach
Ethernet (LRE), a very-high-data-rate digital subscriber line (VDSL)-based
technology that allows an Ethernet network to reach distances up to 4921 feet
(1500 meters). The switches can be deployed as backbone switches, aggregating
10/100 and Gigabit Ethernet traffic from other network devices.
The Catalyst 2900 XL switches have these features:
• Autonegotiates speed and duplex operation on all 10/100 ports
• Operates in full-duplex mode on all 100BASE-FX ports
• Checks for errors on a received packet, determines the destination port, stores
the packet in shared memory, and then forwards the packet to the destination
port
