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Magnum 6K16-Series Managed Fiber Switch Installation and User Guide (04/06)
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4.0 OPERATION
This chapter describes the functions and operation of the Magnum 6K16-Series
Switch.
4.1 Switching Functionality
A Magnum 6K16-Series provides switched connectivity at Ethernet wire-speed
among all of its ports. The Magnum 6K16-Series supports10/100Mbs for copper media
and 10 or 100Mb separate traffic domains for fiber ports to maximize bandwidth
utilization and network performance. All ports can communicate to all other ports in a
Magnum 6K16-Series, but local traffic on a port will not consume any of the bandwidth
on any other port.
Magnum 6K16-Series units are plug-and-play devices. There is no software
configuring necessary to be done for basic operation at installation or for maintenance.
The only hardware configuration settings are user options for an UP-LINK Switch
(resides inside the unit) on the 6K8-RJ45. Optional Half / Full duplex mode and 10 or
100Mbps selection for the switched ports must be configured through MNS software per
unit as per the requirement. The internal functions of both are described below.
Filtering and Forwarding
Each time a packet arrives on one of the switched ports, the decision is taken to
either filter or to forward the packet. Packets whose source and destination addresses are
on the same port segment will be filtered, constraining them to that one port and relieving
the rest of the network from having to process them. A packet whose destination address
is on another port segment will be forwarded to the appropriate port, and will not be sent
to the other ports where it is not needed. Traffic needed for maintaining the un-
interrupted operation of the network (such as occasional multi-cast packets) are
forwarded to all ports.
The Magnum 6K16-Series Switches operate in the store-and-forward switching
mode, which eliminates bad packets and enables peak performance to be achieved when
there is heavy traffic on the network.
Address Learning
All Magnum 6K16-Series units have address table capacities of 4K node
addresses suitable for use in larger networks. They are self-learning, so as nodes are
added, removed or moved from one segment to another, the 6K16-Series Switch
automatically keeps up with node locations.
An address-aging algorithm causes least-used addresses to fall out in favor of
frequently-used addresses. To reset the address buffer, cycle power down-and-up.