3Com’s Token Ring
Switching Strategy
High-speed, multimedia applications
demand ever-increasing levels of LAN
performance and traffic segmentation.
3Com’s switching strategy focuses on
delivering high-speed switching where
it is needed on the network, from the
data center to the periphery.
The strategy protects network invest-
ment by providing a migration path for
high-speed technologies while preserv-
ing the organization’s existing network
infrastructure.
During 1995, 3Com will announce a broad
range of Token Ring scalable switching
products for chassis and stackable con-
figurations. The switching architecture
is based on the Token Ring Switching
Engine (TRSE) ASIC, the latest leading-
edge integrated chip that enables
3Com to drive switching to new price/
performance levels.
Like the ISE-chip for the high-speed
Ethernet/FDDI LANplex switch product
line, the TRSE integrates advanced
switching functionality onto hardware
for a low-cost, high-speed switch solu-
tion. The resulting Token Ring switching
architecture features cut-through and
store-and-forward switching, source
route and transparent bridging, 802.1d
and IBM
®
Spanning Tree support, flexible
virtual network configuration, and a
migration path to FDDI/ATM.
Intelligent Switches
3Com switches enhance your net-
work’s performance by creating
“microsegments” that are intercon-
nected using a high-speed switching
matrix. Microsegmenting means that
a switched node doesn’t share band-
width with other nodes, even when
they share the same port—which
translates to dramatic increases in
performance.
3Com leads the industry in breadth
of switching offerings with a total of
three product families: LinkSwitch,
LANplex, and CELLplex
™
. This
broad choice of options ensures that
you’ll get precisely the switching
functionality you need.
Network technologies currently
supported by 3Com switches include
Ethernet, 100BASE-T Fast Ethernet,
Fiber Distributed Data Interface
(FDDI), and Asynchronous Transfer
Mode (ATM). Support for Token
Ring switching is also planned.
And you can manage every 3Com
switch with 3Com’s Transcend inte-
grated management applications.
3Com’s LinkSwitch switches
make performance enhancements
easy at the workgroup level with
stackable convenience and plug-and-
play simplicity. The LinkSwitch
family also lets you extend high-
speed FDDI, Fast Ethernet, or ATM
pipes from Ethernet workgroups to a
server, eliminating desktop-to-server
bottlenecks.
The LANplex family of
workgroup/departmental and data
center switches provides peak per-
formance and modular, scalable
connections for Ethernet and FDDI
networks. And the CELLplex family
uses powerful, state-of-the-art cell
switching technology to deliver
low-latency, high-throughput ATM
performance on the backbone or in
bandwidth-constrained departments.
3Com switches are powered by
custom-designed switching engines
based on sophisticated application-
specific integrated circuits (ASICs).
These highly integrated ASICs
make switching fast, simple, and
economical. They also contribute
to a fault-tolerant architecture you
can trust with your mission-critical
applications.
LinkBuilder Hub Configuration Guide 21
LinkSwitch Family
LANplex Family
CELLplex Family
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