LevelOne GEL-5261, User Manual

Page: 33 / 570

Chapter 1
| Introduction
Description of Software Features
– 33 –
Description of Software Features
The switch provides a wide range of advanced performance enhancing features.
Flow control eliminates the loss of packets due to bottlenecks caused by port
saturation. Storm suppression prevents broadcast, multicast, and unknown unicast
traffic storms from engulfing the network. Untagged (port-based), tagged, and
protocol-based VLANs, plus support for automatic GVRP VLAN registration provide
traffic security and efficient use of network bandwidth. CoS priority queueing
ensures the minimum delay for moving real-time multimedia data across the
network. While multicast filtering provides support for real-time network
applications.
Some of the management features are briefly described below.
Configuration Backup
and Restore
You can save the current configuration settings to a file on the management station
(using the web interface) or an FTP/SFTP/TFTP server (using the web or console
interface), and later download this file to restore the switch configuration settings.
Authentication
This switch authenticates management access via the console port, Telnet, or a web
browser. User names and passwords can be configured locally or can be verified via
a remote authentication server (i.e., RADIUS or ). Port-based
authentication is also supported via the IEEE 802.1X protocol. This protocol uses
Extensible Authentication Protocol over LANs (EAPOL) to request user credentials
from the 802.1X client, and then uses the EAP between the switch and the
authentication server to verify the client’s right to access the network via an
authentication server (i.e., RADIUS or server).
Other authentication options include HTTPS for secure management access via the
web, SSH for secure management access over a Telnet-equivalent connection,
SNMP Version 3, IP address filtering for SNMP/Telnet/web management access.
MAC address filtering and IP source guard also provide authenticated port access.
While DHCP snooping is provided to prevent malicious attacks from insecure ports.
Access Control Lists
ACLs provide packet filtering for IP frames (based on address, protocol, TCP/UDP
port number or TCP control code) or any frames (based on MAC address or Ethernet
type). ACLs can be used to improve performance by blocking unnecessary network
traffic or to implement security controls by restricting access to specific network
resources or protocols.
Port Configuration
You can manually configure the speed, duplex mode, and flow control used on
specific ports, or use auto-negotiation to detect the connection settings used by
the attached device. Use full-duplex mode on ports whenever possible to double
the throughput of switch connections. Flow control should also be enabled to
control network traffic during periods of congestion and prevent the loss of