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Integrated Cisco IOS
®
 
Software Features for 
Bandwidth Optimization 
•  Per-port broadcast, multicast, and storm control prevents faulty end stations from degrading overall systems 
performance. 
•  IEEE 802.1d Spanning Tree Protocol support for redundant backbone connections and loop-free networks 
simplifies network configuration and improves fault tolerance. 
•  PVST+ allows for Layer 2 load sharing on redundant links to efficiently use the extra capacity inherent in 
a redundant design. 
•  IEEE 802.1s Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol allows a spanning-tree instance per VLAN, enabling Layer 2 load 
sharing on redundant links. 
•  Egress committed rate (ECR) guarantee provides load balancing and redundancy. 
•  Local Proxy Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) works in conjunction with Private VLAN Edge to minimize 
broadcasts and maximize available bandwidth. 
•  VLAN1 minimization allows VLAN1 to be disabled on any individual VLAN trunk link. 
•  VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP) pruning limits bandwidth consumption on VTP trunks by flooding broadcast traffic 
only on trunk links required to reach the destination devices. 
•  Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) version 3 snooping provides fast client joins and leaves of 
multicast streams and limits bandwidth-intensive video traffic to only the requestors. 
•  IGMP filtering provides multicast authentication by filtering out no subscribers and limits the number of 
concurrent multicast streams available per port. 
•  Multicast VLAN registration (MVR) continuously sends multicast streams in a multicast VLAN while isolating e 
streams from subscriber VLANs for bandwidth and security reasons. 
•  Standard 802.1p CoS and DSCP field classification are provided, using marking and reclassification on a per-
packet basis by source and destination IP address, source and destination MAC address, or Layer 4 TCP or 
UDP port number. 
•  Cisco control-plane and data-plane QoS ACLs on all ports help ensure proper marking on a per-packet basis. 
•  Four egress queues per port enable differentiated management of up to four traffic types across the stack. 
•  SRR scheduling ensures differential prioritization of packet flows by intelligently servicing the ingress and egress 
queues. 
•  Weighted tail drop (WTD) provides congestion avoidance at the ingress and egress queues before a disruption 
occurs. 
•  Strict priority queuing guarantees that the highest-priority packets are serviced ahead of all other traffic. 
•  There is no performance penalty for highly granular QoS functions. 
•  The Cisco CIR function guarantees bandwidth in increments as small as 1 Mbps. 
•  Rate limiting is provided based on source and destination IP address, source and destination MAC address, 
Layer 4 TCP and UDP information, or any combination of these fields, using QoS ACLs (IP ACLs or MAC 
ACLs), class maps, and policy maps. 
•  Asynchronous data flows upstream and downstream from the end station or on the uplink are easily managed 
using ingress policing and egress shaping. 
•  Up to 64 aggregate or individual polices are available per Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet port. 
Networkwide Security 
Features 
•  IEEE 802.1x allows dynamic, port-based security, providing user authentication. 
•  IEEE 802.1x with VLAN assignment allows a dynamic VLAN assignment for a specific user regardless of where 
the user is connected. 
•  IEEE 802.1x with voice VLAN permits an IP phone to access the voice VLAN irrespective of the authorized or