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May 1998 By Stephen Saunders Product Leaders: Switches Cisco Gets Serious About Layer 3 Switching Cisco's 8500 is a strong entry into the Layer 3 arena, but the vendor has omitted some key functions What do you do if you've built an empire selling routers but your customers have developed a taste for switches? If you're Cisco Systems Inc., you announce the Catalyst 8500: a switch with enough brains and brawn to grab a piece of the campus backbone market but missing a few key features (like WAN and IBM connectivity), so net managers have to keep buying your 7500 routers. And if you're Cisco, you charge an arm and a leg for the box. Born to Run The Catalyst 8500 sits on a campus backbone, occupying the same spot as a Cisco 7500 router. The chassis comes in two sizes: The 5-slot 8510 and the 13-slot 8540. The bigger box features redundant CPUs, switching fabrics, and power supplies. One slot in the 8510 is taken up by a Switch Route Processor (SRP), which furnishes the nonblocking shared-memory switching fabric. It also packs a CPU that runs Cisco's IOS (Internetworking Operating System) routing software and handles lookups. The 8540 needs two SRPs. Cisco has announced an 8-port 10/100-Mbit/s Ethernet card and a 1-port gigabit Ethernet interface (ATM is planned). The hot-swappable modules are backward-compatible with Cisco's earlier Catalyst 5500 switch. The 8500 is the first Cisco switch built from the ground up for Layer 3 switching. Custom-cast ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) on each interface card either switch packets at Layer 2 or route IP, IPX, and IP multicast at Layer 3. The Catalyst 5500 also can switch at Layer 3, but only with an add-on module, which puts a damper on performance. Cisco argues that its ASIC architecture means the 8500 can forward Layer 2 and Layer 3 traffic at wire speed. Given that the product isn't shipping yet, there's no way to test those claims. The Layer 3 Look "My first impressions are that the 8500 sounds like very, very good news. Being able to do true Layer 3 aggregation in the data center is critical," says Robert Bowman, director of backbone engineering at Exodus Communications Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif), an Internet content host that has been briefed on the product. Exodus currently uses Catalyst 5500s. The switch also comes with advanced QOS (quality-of-service) capabilities. Net managers can identify specific traffic flows and allocate service levels to each. Flows can be pinpointed using anything from MAC (media-access control) layer to application layer data—including the dynamic TCP port numbers employed by real audio or Web apps. Missing In Action But it's what the Catalyst 8500 can't do that may matter most to corporate networkers. It doesn't support the extensive protocol suite found in Cisco's software. It can't talk to IBM mainframes. It can't link to any of the WAN connections commonly employed on corporate nets. And it can't handle token ring or FDDI. The reason these features are MIA probably has as mu ch to do with fiscal considerations as with technological constraints. Cisco can't afford to cut into its 7000, 7200, and 7500 routers lines. About 20 percent ($1.5 billion) of the vendor's revenues come from high-end router sales—and that doesn't include income from router-related service and support. By omitting key functions from the 8500, Cisco ensures that net managers continue to buy and support 7500s. "It's not a case of 'why can't we?' You can always make a box the god box," says Jayshree Ullal, vice president of marketing for the enterprise line of business at Cisco. "But the sweet spot for the 8500 is wire-speed gig routing in the LAN." Protectionist Policy Cisco's self-protecting position opens the way for rivals—like the Summit48 multilayer switch from Extreme Networks Inc. (Cupertino, Calif.). It comes with 48 10/100-Mbit/s Ethernet ports and 2 gigabit Ethernet ports, routes IP, and costs $11,995 ($240 per port). A Cisco 8510 with 24 10/100-Mbit/s ports and 1 gigabit port costs $65,250 ($2,610 per port). That's five-and-a-half times the price, for half the ports. MORE INFO Catalyst 8500 The Corebuilder 3500 multilayer switch from 3Com Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.) is another contender. It routes IP, IP multicast, IPX, and Appletalk and handles fast Ethernet and gigabit Ethernet (with ATM and FDDI planned). A 3500 with 18 10/100 ports and 1 gigabit port costs roughly $28,000 ($1,490 per port). Further out, Cisco may have to contend with Berkeley Networks (Milpitas, Calif.) and Neo Networks Inc. (Minnetonka, Minn.). Both startups are rolling out switches with advanced QOS and built-in firewalls. Right now, the only way to get end-to-end QOS is by using one vendor's equipment. But with its routers alre ady deployed on most corporate backbones, Cisco is in good shape to become the default supplier of packet-based QOS gear. The 8510 chassis and Ethernet modules will be available in June. The 8540 chassis and ATM modules will be available in the third quarter. Home Contact Editors Lab Tests Registration Tech Tutorials Buyer's Guide Global Networks Opinion / Columns FAQs Subscriptions