Allied Telesis
www.alliedtelesis.com
S
WITCH
B
LADE
®
X
908
| Advanced Layer 3 Modular Switch
Performance
Wire speed switching
The SwitchBlade x908 has fully non-blocking
switching on all ports, so IPv4 Layer 2 switching
and Layer 3 routing occur at wire speed. This is
ideal for high-end server deployments, and when
aggregating gigabit connections.
Aggregation at Layer 2 and Layer 3
Ideal for access aggregation applications at Layer 2.
A large L3 route table provides support for
thousands of IP interfaces, essential when
aggregating complex IP networks.
Industry-leading Quality of Service
Operating at wire-speed, QoS boosts network
performance and guarantees the delivery of
business-critical Ethernet services and applications.
Enterprise and Education customers can be sure
that time-critical services like voice and video
applications will take precedence over non-
essential services like file downloads. Unmatched
QoS accuracy is achieved with a bandwidth limit
resolution down to 1Kbps, which is ideal for
precise control of Enterprise desktop-based
VoIP applications.
Service Providers (SPs) can offer customers
bandwidth and performance profiles tailored to
their needs.
Reliability
The SwitchBlade x908 switch operates with one
Power Supply Unit (PSU); installing a second PSU
provides redundancy. Internal PSUs eliminate the
need for an external Redundant Power Supply
(RPS) that occupies valuable rack space. Built-in
redundancy guarantees the continued delivery of
essential services.The SwitchBlade
®
x908 also
features front-to-back cooling, which increases its
reliability.
Multicasting
The SwitchBlade x908 has a high multicast group
capacity.This allows SPs to offer as many video
services to their customers as possible, maximizing
their per-port revenue. Extensive multicast
protocol support includes PIM-SM and IGMPv3.
Security
The SwitchBlade x908 has 802.1x user
authentication.This is essential for Enterprise
networks needing to prevent intruders from
accessing their network. Other security features
include Private VLANs.
Easy management options
Administrators can choose from a range of secure
remote management options including SNMPv3
and SSH.
Flexibility
The high speed expansion modules provide
copper or fiber connectivity possibilities, delivering
the ultimate in flexibility.
Expansion module options:
• AT-XEM-STK Stacking XEM
• AT-XEM-1XP 1 x 10GbE (XFP)
• AT-XEM-12S 12 x 100/1000BASE-X SFP
ports
• AT-XEM-12T 12 x 10/100/1000BASE-T
(RJ-45) ports
The XEMs are also compatible with the x900-24X
and x900-12XT/S.
All of these modules provide non-blocking
performance, while the ten gigabit uplinks make the
SwitchBlade x908 ideal for aggregating gigabit to the
desktop or for gigabit uplinks from Fast Ethernet
switches.
Ethernet Protected Switched Rings
Ethernet Protected Switched Rings (EPSR) and
10 GbE modules allow the SwitchBlade x908, with a
number of x900 switches or iMAPs, to form a
protected ring with sub 50ms failover. This feature is
perfect for high performance at the core of
Enterprise or Provider Access networks.
Stacking
Virtual Chassis Stacking provides a highly available
system where network resources can be spread
out across a number of stacked nodes, thus
reducing the impact of any one of the stacked
nodes failing. Switch ports on different nodes
across the stack can be aggregated together to
provide excellent high availability characteristics.
Excellent scalability can be achieved in that
individual stacked nodes can be inserted into, and
removed from, the stack as bandwidth and feature
requirements in the network evolve.
On the SwitchBlade x908, stacking can be
achieved by using the two connectors on the rear
of the chassis, where each connector is capable of
providing 80Gbps of stacking bandwidth. When
stacking more than two units, this can be achieved
via a XEM module on the front panel. The
stacking XEM module provides two proprietary
30Gbps stacking links allowing up to 4 nodes to
be aggregated.
1
PoE XEM, expected availability late 2008. Standard
copper XEM available now.
2
XEM-2XP (2 x XFP) XEM module, expected availability,
late 2008.
3
It is not possible to use the rear stacking ports and the
XEM-STK in the same stack.
4
AlliedWare Plus software release 5.2.1 supports stacking
of 2 units. Support for more than 2 units will be available
in a future release.
