This is to introduce the 3COM SUPERSTACK 11 1100 Switch.

Throughout this FECO a SPACE in a string is shown by a Ñ.

All other spaces are purely cosmetic.

FEATURES:-

-12. 2 or 24 Ethernet 10 base- T ports

-Two fast Ethernet auto-negotiating

- 100 Base-T/10 Base-T ports

- Matrix port for interconnecting 1100/300 Switches in to a single stack

- Two units can be connected 'back to back' using a matrix cable.

- Up to 4 units can be connected together using a matrix module.

- A slot for an expansion module or matrix module.

- A slot for an optional transceiver (10MBps) (Disables port 1 if installed)

- External Redundant PSU or UPS

- 19" RACK mounted or stand alone.

Due to increased functionality, Client Server software products released during the last few years have used increasing amounts of network bandwidth.

To maintain performance, new standards have been developed providing 100MBps and Gigabit bandwidths.

These increased bandwidths are suitable for 'backbones' or for 'power users'. They are incompatible with 10MBps network devices and not appropriate for most users.

The challenge is to 'switch' down this bandwidth providing appropriate speeds to different users/subnets. The device which has been developed to do this is called a switch.

The 1100 switch has two 10/100 auto negotiating ports for connections to backbones, servers or other switches and 12 or 24 10 base-T ports for connections to Hubs, other switches, desktops, servers or terminal servers.

As switches also pass packets at 'wire speed', they are being used to replace Hubs. (Hubs usually store and forward packets which impacts on performance.)

Height: 76mm (3.0in) x Width: 483mm (19.0in) x Depth: 300mm (12.0in)

Operating Temperature 0 deg to 50 deg C (32 deg F to 122 deg F)

Operating Humidity 10 to 95% relative humidity non-condensing

Heat Dissipation 117 watts, (400BTU/hour)

Power Requirements 50/60Hz

90-240VAC

3 amps (max)

The mec identity is:-

S/STACK 2 - SWITCH - 1100-24P

The Switch has 12 or 24 10BASE-T ports configured as MDIX (cross-over).

The maximum segment length is 100m (328ft) over Category 5 twisted pair cable.

As these ports are configured as MDIX (cross-over), you need to use a cross-over cable to connect to devices whose ports are MDIX-only.

The Switch has two auto-negotiating 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX ports configured as MDIX (cross-over). These ports can be set to 10BASE-T half duplex, 10BASE-T full duplex, 100BASE-TX half duplex, 100BASE-TX full duplex, or they can automatically detect the speed and duplex mode of a link and provide the appropriate connection. The maximum segment length is 100m (328ft) over Category 5 twisted pair cable.

As these ports are configured as MDIX (cross-over), you need to use a cross-over cable to connect to devices whose ports are MDIX-only.

LEDs Table 3 lists the LEDs visible on the front of the Switch, and their states according to colour.

Unit Information Label This label shows the following:

• The 3Com product name of the Switch
• The 3Com 3C number of the Switch
• The unique MAC address (Ethernet address) of the Switch
• The serial number of the Switch

You may need this information for fault reporting purposes.

The Switch automatically adjusts its power setting to any supply voltage in the range 90-240V A.C.

To protect against internal power supply failure, you can use this socket to connect a SuperStack II

Advanced Redundant Power System (RPS) to the Switch. See the manual for full details.

The console port allows you to connect a terminal and perform remote local out-of-band management. The console port uses standard null modem cable and is set to auto-baud, 8 data bits, no parity and 1 stop bit.

You can use this slot to install an Expansion Module that provides a high-speed link to the rest of your network, or a Matrix Module that provides four matrix ports for stacking Switch units together. 3 Com provides a range of Expansion Modules.

When an Expansion Module or Matrix Module is not installed, ensure the blanking plate is secured in place.

You can use this slot to install a Transceiver Module. When a Transceiver Module is installed, the Transceiver Module port becomes port 1 and the port labelled 1 on the front panel becomes inactive. The Transceiver Module can provide a 10Mbps Ethernet half duplex link to the rest of your network using various media such as fiber and coaxial cabling.

When a Transceiver Module is not installed, ensure the blanking plate is secured in place.

The matrix port allows you to:

• Stack the Switch with another Switch 1100 or Switch 3300 unit using a single Matrix Cable.
• Stack the Switch with up to three other Switch 1100 or Switch 3300 units, if one of the units has a Matrix Module installed.

To connect to Terminal Servers, Desktops and Servers use a midi cable (straight through)

To connect to Hubs or other switches use a midi x cable (cross over)

All cabling must be FTP Cat 5 cable with the screen connected to the head shell at both ends.

The following illustrations show some examples of how the Switch can be placed on your network.

Figure 3 shows how the Switch 1100 fits into a large corporate network with a Fast Ethernet infrastructure. A Switch is positioned on each floor and servers are centralized in the basement.

Figure 4 shows the Switch 1100 in a second workgroup situation. This setup could be that of a small office within a large corporation, or part of a larger corporate network. Most of the switch ports have multiple endstations.

Figure 5 shows the Switch 1100 used for a group of users in a large corporate network. Here switching is brought to the desktop with a single endstation per port. Local servers are connected via 100Mbps Fast Ethernet links.

The topology rules for 100Mbps Fast Ethernet are slightly different to those for 10Mbps Ethernet. Figure 6 illustrates the key topology rules and provides examples of how they allow for large-scale Fast Ethernet networks.

The key topology rules are:

The Switch provides full duplex support for all its fixed ports, including Expansion Module ports. Full duplex allows packets to be transmitted and received simultaneously and, in effect, doubles the potential throughput of a link.

With full duplex, the Ethernet topology rules are the same, but the Fast Ethernet rules are:

• Maximum UTP cable length is 100m (328ft) over Category 5 cable.
• A 2km (6562ft) fibre link is allowed for connecting switch-to-switch, or endstation-to-switch.

Switches such as the 3 Com SuperStack II 1100 are layer 2 switches. This means they operate at the MAC (media access control) address level. (The node still needs an IP address). Basically this means that the switch 'learns' which device(s) is connected to which of it's ports. It stores this information in a volatile table as a list of Mac address to port. The limitation this does impose is that there is no performance gain by connecting two channels to the same subnet. Rather than doubling the effective bandwidth, the 'Spanning Tree' protocol will actually detect that there are two paths and disable one of them. (This is to prevent duplicate frames and storms).

What this configuration can provide, however, is a measure of resilience. If the active link fails, then the 'Spanning Tree' protocol will enable the other link.

The 3 Com SuperStack II 110 switch supports various setup methodologies.

For simplicity, it is recommended that the command line interface is adopted as the standard.

The only parameters that require changing from the defaults are:-

a) IP address

b) Subnet mask

c) Default gateway (if applicable)

Command line setup utilities can be accessed either through the console port, (initial setup) or via telnet, if a valid IP address has been previously configured.

Attach a VDU configured for:-

19200, 8, N, 1, xoff/xon

to the console port, using a 9 pin to 25 pin null modem cable. (See cable specification earlier in this document).

Power up the VDU and the switch 1100

A switch 1100 generated login prompt will be displayed.

To log in to the command line Configuration Utility enter at the prompt

admin <CR>

At the password prompt enter <CR>

The top level command line interface will be displayed.

To configure an IP address, subnet mask and default gateway enter:-

ip Ñ interfaceÑ define

Enter IP address (0. 0. 0. 0)

Enter a valid IP address

Enter subnet mask (0. 0. 0. 0)

Enter a valid subnet mask for the switch

The following prompt will be displayed:-

Enter default gateway (0. 0. 0. 0)

Enter the IP address of the default gateway, if applicable.

The system will prompt for a SLIP address

<CR> through this

The IP address, subnet mask and default gateway have now been configured.

To display IP information, enter

ip Ñ interfaceÑdisplay

11.1 To test the switch:-

The switch maintains statistical information about its performance. To display this information to assist with problem diagnosis:-

At the Top-level menu, enter:-

Ethernet statistics

The following prompt is displayed:-

Select Ethernet port (1-24)

Enter the number of a port.

The statistical information for the port is displayed as follows:-

Port: 1 Port Speed: 10Mbps HD Auto

Received Stats Transmit Stats

Unicast Packets: 0 Unicast Packets: 50

Non Unicast Packets: 0 Non Unicast Packets 18734

Octets: 0 Octets: 1397087

Fragments: 0 Collisions: 0

Errors

Undersize: 0 Oversize: 0

CRC Errors: 0 Jabbers: 0

Packet Size Analysis

64 Octets: 13752 256 to 511 Octets: 5

65 to 127 Octets: 4404 512 to 1023 Octets: 0

128 to 255 Octets: 623 1024 to 1518 Octets: 00

The following statistical information is displayed:-

Packet Size Analysis

Displaying Port Summary Information