Cisco 6500 Series Switches: What Are the Features & Applications?

As modular chassis network switches, the Cisco catalyst 6500 series switches are optimized choices for network investment protection for enterprises and service providers. It delivers high security, resiliency, and port density for data center, LAN and WAN. Cisco 6500 series switches was researched and developed from 1999, and now they have been widely used in campus, data center and some large size enterprises. This article would mainly talk about their features and applications.

About Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switch

Cisco Catalyst 6500 series switches provide multiple slot choices—3-, 6-, 9-, 9-Vertical and 13-slot of different chassis. They offer the broadest range of interface modules with industry-leading performance and advanced feature integration. Catalyst 6500 Series switches feature an unparalleled range of integrated services modules, including multi-gigabit network security, content switching, telephony, and network analysis modules. There are five available 6500 series switch models in total, which would be mainly presented in the following.

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches

Figure1: Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches(Resource: www.Cisco.com)

  • Cisco Catalyst 6513-E Switch
  • Cisco Catalyst 6509-E Switch
  • Cisco Catalyst 6506-E Switch
  • Cisco Catalyst 6504-E Switch
  • Cisco Catalyst 6503-E Switch

Features & Benefits

—High security

The 6500 Series switches integrate proven, multi-gigabit Cisco security solutions, including intrusion detection, firewall, VPN, and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) into existing networks.

—High scalability

They provide up to 400-mpps performance with distributed forwarding architecture.

—High flexibility

By integrating advanced services such as security, wireless LAN services, customers would experience the the widest range of interfaces and densities, from 10/100 and 10/100/1000 Ethernet to 10 Gigabit, and from DS-0 to OC-48, and performs in any deployment from end to end.

—Operational Consistency

A common set of modules are shared among all chassis configurations, and any network management tool can be used in the network.

—Time-saving

With Cisco IOS Software Modularity and platform, power supply, supervisor engine, switch fabric, and integrated network services redundancy. They deliver applications and services continuity in a converged network, minimizing disruption of mission-critical data and services, which offer the maximum network uptime to save your time.

—Network investment protection

The Cisco 6500 series provides extraordinary investment protection for your network, for they support three generations of interchangeable, hot-swappable modules in the same chassis, optimizing IT infrastructure usage, maximizing ROI, and reducing TCO.

Applications of Cisco 6500 Series Switches

The Cisco 6500 series switches are mainly deployed in campus networks, metro edge, Internet service provider (ISP) and grid computer networks. Owing to time and space limiting, we would only clarify the first two in this passage.

Campus Networks

As we mentioned in the first paragraph, the Cisco 6500 series switches have been widely applied to campus network. The 10/100 and 10/100/1000 autosensing modules provide inline power for the wiring closet. Besides, they are equipped with the work-class networking software and 1/10 Gigabit interface modules, which feature as robust high-availability, security and manageability. All in all, that would be of high performance for your distribution and core network in campus.

Deployment of Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches in campus network

Figure2: Deployment of Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches in campus network

Metro Edge

The Cisco 6500 switches provide point-to-point and multipoint Ethernet services, which is rather suitable for metro and intermetro network deployments. It has edge, distribution, and core network-layer interfaces, which is compliant with Network Equipment Building Standards (NEBS). They offer high performance 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks that is of security, availability, and manageability.

Deployment of Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches in Metro Edge

Figure3: Deployment of Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches in Metro Edge

Cisco Catalyst 6509-E Switch

As one of Cisco 6500 series switches, Cisco Catalyst 6509-E switch is of eye-catching recently. The 9-slot Cisco Catalyst 6509-E Switch provides high port densities that are ideal for many wiring closet, distribution, and core network as well as data center deployments. It supports1G and 10G Gigabit Ethernet network connection, along with 386 1G SFP ports and 32 10G XENPAK/X2 ports respectively. There are four compatible 1000BASE transceivers in total for the 6509-E switch, 1000BASE-LX/LH SFP, 1000BASE-SX SFP, 1000BASE-T SFP and 1000BASE-ZX SFP. You can plug any of the four transceiver types into the SFP port on this switch to make 1G network connection. The 6509-E supports 10G X2/XENPAK ports, you could connect 10GBase LR X2 module or any other compatible X2/XENPAK modules to the switch.

Other Economic Choices for 1/10G Switch

For 1/10G switch, you can take FS.COM for a try, we offer network Ethernet switches with high performance and high quality. The following is our S3910-24T4S Ethernet switch, which is deployed at the access layer of an enterprise network to deliver cost-effective packet switching capability. It provides 24*10/100/1000Base-T Ports and 4 10G SFP+ ports to extend your home or business network at gigabit speeds.

FS 1 10G enterprise switches

Figure4: FS 1/10G enterprise switches

Conclusion

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switches are inevitable choices for network investment of Multigigabit Ethernet services. They feature as high security, scalability, flexibility, operational consistency, time-saving, and network investment protection. Nowadays, they have been deployed in campus networks, metro edge, ISP and grid computer networks.

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1000BASE SFP Transceiver for Gigabit Ethernet

Gigabit Ethernet, which is standardized by the IEEE as the 802.3z standard, is a term describing various technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a Gigabit per second. It is currently used as the backbone in many enterprise networks. The 1000BASE SFP transceiver is an important part in Gigabit Ethernet applications, which is a hot-pluggable input/output device that plugs into a Gigabit Ethernet port/slot, linking the port with the network. There are a number of 1000BASE SFP transceivers that are available in Gigabit Ethernet in accordance with the customer application and distance capability required.

Classification of Gigabit Ethernet

Depending on the cable material, Gigabit Ethernet can be classified into fiber-based Gigabit Ethernet and copper-based Gigabit Ethernet.

  • Fiber-based Gigabit Ethernet

In fiber-based Gigabit Ethernet, 1000BASE-X is used in industry to refer to Gigabit Ethernet transmission over fiber. 1000BASE-X is a group of standards for Ethernet physical layer standards. These standards include: 1000BASE-SX (A fiber optic Gigabit Ethernet standard for operation over multi-mode fiber), 1000BASE-LX (a fiber optic Gigabit Ethernet standard using a long wavelength laser and a maximum RMS spectral width of 4 nm), 1000BASE-LX10 (which is very similar to 1000BASE-LX, but achieves longer distances over a pair of single-mode fiber), 1000BASE-BX10 (which is capable of up to 10 km over a single strand of single-mode fiber) or the non-standard 1000BASE-EX ( a industry accepted term to refer to Gigabit Ethernet transmission) and 1000BASE-ZX (a multi-vendor term to refer to Gigabit Ethernet transmission) implementations.

  • Copper-based Gigabit Ethernet

In copper-based Gigabit Ethernet, 1000BASE-CX, 1000BASE-KX, 1000BASE-T and 1000BASE-TX are four standards for Gigabit Ethernet over copper wiring. 1000BASE-CX uses copper cables as a medium. 1000BASE-KX is part of the IEEE 802.3ap standard for Ethernet Operation over Electrical Backplanes. 1000Base-T uses four pairs of Category 5 unshielded twisted pair cables to achieve Gigabit data rates. 1000BASE-TX is similar to 1000BASE-T but uses two pairs of wires rather than four for data transmission.

1000BASE SFP Transceivers for Gigabit Ethernet

1000BASE SFP transceiver (Small form-factor pluggable) is a device that interfaces a network device motherboard to a fiber optic or copper networking cable. It is designed to support Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel and other communications standards. Since Gigabit Ethernet can be classified into fiber-based Gigabit Ethernet and copper-based Gigabit Ethernet, there are 1000BASE SFP transceiver and 1000BASE copper SFP transceivers used in Gigabit Ethernet.

As there are different physical layer standards for fiber-based Gigabit Ethernet, Different 1000BASE SFP transceiver may be used for different standards of Gigabit Ethernet. These 1000BASE SFP transceiver can be used for single-mode and multi-mode fibers of different reaches. For example, the 1000BASE-LX SFP transceiver can operate on standard single-mode fiber-optic link spans of up to 10km and up to 550m on any multi-mode fibers. When it is used over legacy multi-mode fiber type, its transmitter should be coupled through a mode conditioning patch cable.

1000BASE SFP transceiver

1000BASE Copper SFP transceivers use copper lines for linking. In copper-based Gigabit Ethernet, the 1000BASE-T SFP module is the most commonly-used transceiver. Be compatible with the Gigabit Ethernet and 1000BASE-T standards, it operates on standard Category 5 unshielded twisted-pair copper cabling of link lengths up to 100m.

1000BASE-T SFP

As Gigabit Ethernet has been demonstrated to be a viable solution for increased bandwidth requirements for growing networks, the market is flooded with various 1000BASE SFP transceiver. Fiberstore supplies many kinds of 1000BASE SFP transceivers including the aforesaid 1000BASE-LX SFP transceiver and 1000BASE-T copper transceiver.