3 C O M
®
S W I T C H 4 0 x 0 FA M I LY D ATA S H E E T
2
"3Com offers a
revolutionary approach
to build enterprise LAN
cores with innovative
technology that breaks
new ground in the
networking industry."
Zeus Kerravala, vice president of
Enterprise Infrastructure, Yankee
Group
The 3Com
®
Switch 40x0 Family consists
of three high-performance, wirespeed,
Layer 2 / Layer 3 / Layer 4 Gigabit
switches, all with "hot swappable"
dual redundant power supplies and
fans. These enterprise-class devices
are ideal for creating a highly resilient
core switching environment for a small
campus or building-wide network, or
for aggregation of workgroups in a
larger network environment.
All these switches optionally support
3Com's patented XRN
™
technology,
allowing you to quickly build a fully
redundant aggregation or network
core solution out of a pair of 3Com
Gigabit switches–delivering high
resiliency without complexity.
The three models each have 24 ports,
of different Gigabit port combinations,
with flexibility and expansion provided
through SFP (Small Form factor Plug-
in) or GBIC transceivers:
• 3Com Switch 4070 provides maximum
media flexibility with 24 SFP slots.
• 3Com Switch 4060 has 12 1000BASE-
SX ports, six GBIC ports, and six
integrated 10/100/1000 ports.
• 3Com Switch 4050 has six 1000BASE-
SX ports, six GBIC ports, and 12
integrated 10/100/1000 ports.
The Gigabit Multilayer Switching (GMS)
Software is the operating software of
the 3Com Switch 40x0 Family. Now
included with all new switches are
advanced features of the GMS Software,
formerly sold separately: OSPF routing
and support for geographically distrib-
uted XRN configurations.
Two configurations of XRN-enabled
switches are supported by the Switch
40x0 Family:
• Two locally connected XRN-enabled
switches. Required for this is one
3Com XRN Interconnect kit (3C17715)
to connect the two switches.
• Two geographically distributed
XRN-enabled switches. Required
for this are two 3Com 4-Slot GBIC
Modules for SuperStack
®
3 Switch
4900 and Switch 40x0 (3C17714),
one for each switch in the configu-
ration, along with the quantity of
GBIC modules to support the desired
fiber connections. One connection
between the two switches is required,
but for added bandwidth, up to four
connections can be aggregated. In
this configuration, fiber connections
must be of the same type and can
only be used for XRN connections.
XRN Technology
XRN
™
–eXpandable Resilient
Networking–technology is patented,
innovative 3Com technology that
allows IT managers to build affordable
networks that are highly resilient and
deliver exceptional performance and
flexibility. With XRN technology,
multiple interconnected Gigabit
switches behave as a single management
switching entity. The units actively
share the load in normal operation,
yet one will nearly instantly recover
all connections should the other unit
or its connections have a failure. XRN
technology is supported by the 3Com
SuperStack 3 Switch 4900 for server
aggregation and by the 3Com Switch
40x0 for building core networking. It
is high resiliency networking without
complexity.
