22 C
HAPTER
 1: S
UPER
S
TACK
II S
WITCH
 M
ANAGEMENT
 S
OFTWARE
Units in the Switch 1100/610 family support three forwarding modes in 
addition to Store and Forward:
■
Fast Forward
 — Packets are forwarded as soon as the destination 
address is received and processed. With Fast Forward, packets take 
less time to be forwarded, but all error packets are propagated onto 
the network because no time is allowed for checking.
■
Fragment Free
 — Packets are forwarded when at least 512 bits of the 
packet is received, which ensures that collision fragments are not 
propagated through the network. With Fragment Free, packets take 
less time to be forwarded, but all error packets except fragments are 
propagated.
■
Intelligent
 — The Switch monitors the amount of error traffic on the 
network and changes the forwarding mode accordingly. If the Switch 
detects less than 20 errors a second, the forwarding mode is set to 
Fast Forward. If the Switch detects 20 or more errors a second, the 
forwarding mode is set to Store and Forward until the number of 
errors a second returns to zero.
For information about setting the forwarding mode for units in the 
Switch 1100/610 family, see 
“Configuring the Advanced Stack Settings”
 
on 
page 76
.
Duplex Modes
All the ports on your Switch can be set to one of two duplex modes:
■
Half duplex
 — Allows packets to be transmitted and received, but not 
simultaneously. This is the default Ethernet duplex mode.
■
Full duplex
 — Allows packets to be transmitted and received 
simultaneously and, in effect, doubles the potential throughput of a 
link. In addition, full duplex supports 100BASE-FX cable runs of up to 
2km (6562ft).
To communicate effectively, both ends of a link must use the same duplex 
mode. If the link uses an auto-negotiating connection, this is done 
automatically. If the link uses a connection that is not auto-negotiating, 
both ends must be set to half duplex or full duplex manually.
For more information about setting the duplex mode of a port, see 
“Configuring a Port”
 on 
page 59
.