Cisco revamps Catalyst switch range

Cisco today unveiled what it claimed is the world's first Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) enabled IP phone, in addition to a raft of enhancements to its Catalyst switching range designed to boost security, availability and performance.

The networking giant said that its IP Phone 7971G-GE allows "unconstrained GbE bandwidth" from the network to desktop phone.

The Catalyst 6500 Supervisor Engine 32 has been enhanced to allow customers to enable hardware-based security features, such as DoS mitigation to protect network application performance, and support for multicast applications at the network edge.

To extend 10GbE support to the network edge the revamped 6500 Supervisor Engine 32 ships with a choice of two 10GbE XENPAK-based or eight one GbE Small Form Factor Pluggable based uplinks.

Additionally, the firm has added a Layer 2/3/4 Supervisor Engine V-10GE which offers dual wire-speed 10GbE ports or four GbE ports to its Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series.

The latest Catalyst 3560 models have been designed to support 24- and 48-port 10/100/1000 configurations with optional PoE support.

The company also unveiled Catalyst 6500 Lan Access Interface modules including 48-port 10/100/1000, and 48-port 10/100 modules with enhanced QoS and cable fault detection capabilities. A 96-port 10/100 (RJ21) module for high port densities has also been developed.

Other additions to the Catalyst 6500 include a 48-port 100BASE-X module to support 100Mbps fibre deployments, a 6000W power supply for high density PoE deployments, and a Cisco Catalyst Content Switching Module with integrated SSL (CSM-S) for datacentre deployments.

"Networks must grow at the pace of business. To support their current and future needs, companies are seeking to improve the reliability and security of their communications infrastructure," said David Willis, vice president of technology research services at analyst Meta Group. "More capacity and intelligence is coming to the edge of the network."