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Catalyst GigaStack Gigabit Interface Converter Hardware Installation Guide
78-6460-04
1
Overview
The GigaStack GBIC (model WS-X3500-XL) adds port density and
high-performance connectivity to supporting switches. When installed in a
supporting switch, the GigaStack GBIC supports Gigabit connections in a
cascaded stack or point-to-point configuration. The GigaStack GBIC
autonegotiates the duplex setting of each port to maximize the bandwidth for your
configuration.
Features
This section describes the GigaStack GBIC features:
• Half-duplex stacking using only one GBIC slot for each switch
Stack up to nine switches to form an independent backbone that can be
managed with a single IP address. This stack gives the appearance of a single
large switch for network management purposes. For this kind of connectivity,
see the “Example 1: Cascaded Stack Connection” section on page 1-9.
• Full-duplex connectivity between two switches
You can also form a point-to-point link between two switches. The GigaStack
GBIC supports one full-duplex link (in a point-to-point configuration) or up
to eight half-duplex links (in a stack configuration) to other Gigabit Ethernet
devices. For this kind of connectivity, see the “Example 2: Point-to-Point
Connection” section on page 1-10.