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switching in distribution and server−aggregation environments. The Catalyst 6000 family complements the
Catalyst 5000 series and 8500 series switches.
The Catalyst 6000 family is capable of scaling bandwidth from T1 to OC−192 in the WAN/MAN, and from
Ethernet to 10 Gigabit Ethernet in the LAN. The Catalyst 6000 series uses a Cisco IOS software base with
ASICs to deliver wire−speed traffic management services end−to−end. The Catalyst 6000 series also offers a
range of WAN/MAN protocols and media, as well as future scalability for direct analog and digital
connectivity to existing voice infrastructures, to allow easy migration from existing networks to high−speed
converged LAN/WAN/MAN networks and Voice Over IP architectures.
The Catalyst 6000 and 6500 series switches offer multilayer services using interchangeable line cards. The
first of these cards is the PFC, which is an integral part of the CiscoAssure end−to−end QoS and policy−based
security solution. The PFC can identify user applications and classify traffic with the appropriate priority
level. For example, a video conferencing packet can be given higher priority than, say, a Web page request.
The second of these services is the MSFC, which, in combination with the PFC, provides 15 million pps of
forwarding performance for IP, IPX, and IP Multicast traffic. The MSFC also supports Hot Standby Routing
Protocol (HSRP) for routing redundancy between MSFCs in the same chassis, across Catalyst 6000 family
switches, or between a Catalyst 6000 series switch and a standalone Cisco router.
The MSFC also supports traffic−statistics collection and accounting with no impact on switching
performance.
In addition, Cisco offers the FlexWAN module, which accepts up to two Cisco 7200/7500 series WAN port
adapters, supporting asynchronous and synchronous serial interfaces at speeds from 56Kbps to 155Mbps. The
FlexWAN module provides native support of the Frame Relay, ATM, Packet over SONET (PoS),
Point−to−Point Protocol (PPP), and High−Level Data Link Control (HDLC) protocols along with a range of
interfaces, including T1/E1, T3/E3, High−Speed Serial Interface (HSSI), and OC−3. Up to eight FlexWAN
modules are supported in a Catalyst 6000 family switch. However, this module does not support modules for
Ethernet, Token Ring, FDDI, channel port adapters, encryption service modules, compression service
modules, and doublewide port adapters.
Table E.11 shows the key features of the Catalyst 6000 series.
Table E.11: The key features of the Cisco Catalyst 6000 family.
Feature 6006 6009 6506 6509
Backplane 32Gbps 32Gbps 256Gbps 256Gbps
Forwarding rate 15 million pps 15 million pps 150 million pps 150 million pps
Modular slots 6 9 6 9
Max Gigabit ports 130 130 130 130
Max 100FX ports 192 192 130 130
Max 10/100 ports 240 384 240 384
Max 10BaseFL 192 192 192 192
Max ATM 8 8 8 8
Max VLANs 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000
Core Layer/WAN Switches
The Core layer and WAN switches are used for high−speed switching backbones and WAN implementations
to switch packets as quickly as possible. The Core layer is usually designed with optimal redundancy, because
it must be highly reliable. Fast convergence is also a requirement of the Core layer.
In this section we’ll be discussing the following switches:
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