Overview

The EdgeIron™ 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10-GbE) switches, featuring the EdgeIron 48GS and 8X10G, delivers interface flexibility, wire-speed performance, superior port density, and a complete standard Layer 2 feature set to address low-cost and high performance switching requirements of enterprise and service providers. Only 1 rack unit (1RU) high, the EdgeIron family is an excellent choice to deliver Gigabit Over Copper (GoC) with 10-GbE uplink within the wiring closet and server farm, and 10-GbE within the backbone. The EdgeIron is easy to configure and maintain. It offers a cost-effective and high-performance Layer 2 solution for enterprise network deployments.

The EdgeIron family of 10-GbE switches includes the following:

• EdgeIron 48GS—48-port 10/100/1000 ports, 2-port stacking, and an optional slot for a 10-GbE module that supports removeable and hot-swappable SR, LR, and ER XENPAK optics
• EdgeIron 8X10G—8-port 10-GbE ports that supports removeable and hot-swappable SR, LR, and ER XFP optics. A 10/100 port (RJ-45) is available for use as a management interface, enabling full usage of all 10-GbE ports.

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Features

High-Availability

Enterprise networks require cost-effective high-availability. The EdgeIron 10-GbE switches offer a unique, high-availability solution called IntelStack™ technology. The EdgeIron 48GS includes stacking ports that ensure high-availability from any link failures. Each stacking port comes with a 20-Gbps switching performance and a combined 40-Gbps full-duplex switching performance to deliver high performance network throughput for each stack.

Foundry's Intelligent Stack technology enables the creation of a close loop connection, which is the ability to connect the last unit back to the first unit, to deliver high-availability from any broken link. Foundry's Intelligent Stack technology also delivers the network intelligence to ensure that network traffic takes the shortest path between each unit. Similar to a chassis behavior, Foundry's Intelligent Stack technology derives a forwarding path table that is used by each unit to determine closest path to their destination. IntelStack combines QoS, which can be Class of Service (802.1p) or Type of Service/DiffServ Control Points (ToS/DSCP), in the computation for the forwarding path table.

The EdgeIron 48GS supports an optional 10-GbE module, which can be coupled with crossdevice 802.3ad to deliver high-availability from any fiber link failure.

Scalability

Foundry's Intelligent Stack technology enables customers to connect up to 8 EdgeIron GS units together. Using an EdgeIron 48GS, network managers can easily connect 8 EdgeIron 48GS to deliver 384 GoC and 8 10-GbE connections in a single stack of approximately 8 rack units (RU). (8RU is possible if units are stacked one upon another. Airflow is not impeded when units are stacked closely to each other.)

With Foundry's Intelligent Stack technology, network managers can easily build high-density and high performance wiring closet solution that supports 384 GoC and 8 10-GbE connections. Network redundancy can also be achieved by creating uplinks of 2 to 8 ports 10-GbE connection back to an EdgeIron 8X10G, which can be used as a low-cost and high performance 10-GbE backbone switch.

Performance

Foundry Networks is known in the industry for delivering networking products with high performance ASIC. The EdgeIron 10-GbE switches use a high performance cross-bar (XBAR) ASIC that delivers a non-blocking full-duplex switching performance of 160-Gbps. Each spoke connects to a packet processor, which offers local full-duplex switching performance of up to 24-Gbps, using a 20-Gbps full-duplex connection back to the XBAR.

Network managers that require high performance switching in their data center can easily build networks using the EdgeIron 10-GbE switches. For example, network managers of Grid and Cluster computing can stack eight (8) EdgeIron 48GS together to create a chassis-like solution that comes with a 40-Gbps backplane, supports 384 GoC connections, and 8 10-GbE uplink connections.

Complete Standard Layer 2 Feature Set

Each EdgeIron ships with a complete standard Layer 2 feature set including 802.1Q VLANs, 802.1p-based QoS, 802.1d single Spanning Tree Protocol, Per VLAN Spanning Tree (PVST), 802.1w Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol, 802.3x-based flow control, BootP, TFTP, Generic VLAN Registration Protocol (GVRP), Generic Multicast Registration Protocol (GMRP), Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) Snooping, and port mirroring. With support for two queues per port based on 802.1p, the EdgeIron provides critical Quality of Service (QoS) features for next-generation applications such as Voice over IP and streaming audio or video.

Ease of Management

With an easy-to-use, industry-standard Command Line Interface (CLI), Telnet based interface, Web-based GUI, and RADIUS-based authentication, the EdgeIron is easy and secure to configure, deploy and maintain. Foundry's IronView Network Manager empowers network operators to seamlessly control software and configuration updates from a central station. IronView Network Manager dramatically simplifies network provisioning, diagnostics and resolution, thus reducing the total cost of ownership of installing and maintaining a world-class network infrastructure.

The EdgeIron 10-GbE switches are well-suited to enterprise wiring closet, data center, and backbone deployments. Enterprise customers wanting to future-proof their network with GoC and 10-GbE can deploy the EdgeIron 10-GbE switches in their network.

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Specifications

Unicast and Multicast Latency Performance

• Under 10μs for Unicast port to port Latency
• 650–700µs Multicast Join
• 6.5–7s Multicast Leave

Standards Compliance

• 802.1d Spanning Tree
• 802.1p Traffic Prioritization
• 802.1q VLAN Tagging
• 802.1w Rapid Spanning Tree (RSTP)*
• 802.3x Flow Control
• IEEE 802.3ad
• 802.3 10BaseT
• 802.3u 100BaseT
• 802.3ab 1000BaseT
• 802.3z 1000BaseSX/LX
• 802.3ae 10-GbE
• IEEE 802.1p CoS prioritization
• IEEE 802.1Q VLAN
• IEEE 802.1x for Port Security

* Software release 2.2.4.21 or later

Protocol Support

• UDP RFC 768
• TFTP RFC 783
• IP RFC 791
• ICMP RFC 792
• TCP RFC 793
• ARP RFC 826
• Telnet RFC 854
• BootP RFC 951
• Host Requirements RFC 1122
• Bootstrap Extensions RFC 1542
• HTTP RFC 2068

Switch Features

• Spanning Tree Protocol and 802.1w
• Flow Control (802.3x)
• Full and Half Duplex; Auto MDI/MDIX
• VLAN Support, Up to 256 VLANs
• GVRP for automatic VLAN learning
• Quality of Service (802.1p)
• Supports four levels of priority and weighted fair queuing
• Broadcast storm control
• Link Aggregation (802.3ad)
• Port Mirroring
• Foundry PVST

Management Features

• In-Band Management
• Telnet, Web-based HTTPS, or SNMP (v1 and v2c)
• Out-of-Band Management
• RS-232 DB-9 console port
• Software Loading
• Secure Shell v 2

RMON Support (RFC 1757)

• Groups 1, 2, 3, 9 (Statistics, History, Alarm, Event)

MIB Support

• MIB II (RFC 1213)
• Bridging MIB (RFC 1493)
• Ethernet-like MIB (RFC 1643)
• SNMP (RFC 1157)
• ARP (RFC826)
• SNMP (RFC1157)
• IGMP (RFC1112)
• Bridge MIB (RFC 1493)
• RADIUS (RFC2618)

Power Requirements

• AC Power: 100 – 240 VAC, 50 – 60 Hz, 150W max.

Environmental

• Temperature: IEC 68-2-14
• 0 to 50 degrees C (Standard Operating)
• -40 to 70 degree C (Non-operation)
• Humidity: 5% to 95% (Noncondensing)
• Vibration: IEC 68-2-36, IEC 68-2-6
• Shock: IEC 68-2-29
• Drop: IEC 68-2-32

MTBF

• 6 years

Electromagnetic and Safety

• CSA/NRTL (UL1950, CSA 22.2.950)
• TUV/GS (EN60950)
• EN55022 (1997) Class A
• EN55024 (1998)
• EN61000-4-2/3/4/5/6/11
• EN61000-2-2 Class A
• EN61000-2-3
• FCC Class A
• VCCI Class A
• CISPR Class A

Warranty

• 5-year Limited Lifetime Hardware Warranty
• 90-day software

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System Options

Part Number	Description
EIF48GS	48-port 10/100/1000 Base-T, 2-port stacking, and an optional slot for a 10-GbE module that supports XENPAK optics
EIF8X10G	8-port 10-GbE that supports XFP optics

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Literature

Datasheets

• EdgeIron GS & 8X10G Datasheet (PDF 465K)
• Optics Family (PDF 171K)

White Papers

• Leveraging the Advantages of a Multi-vendor Network Strategy (PDF 181K)

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