Netgear XSM4348CS Product Data Sheet - Page 6

ProSAFE® Intelligent Edge Managed Switches Data Sheet M4300 series SDN-ready, M4300 OpenFlow feature enables the switch to be managed by a centralized OpenFlow Controller using the OpenFlow protocol • Support of a single-table OpenFlow 1.3 data forwarding path • The OpenFlow feature can be administratively enabled and disabled at any time • The administrator can allow the switch to automatically assign an IP address to the OpenFlow feature or to specifically select which address should be used • The administrator can also direct the OpenFlow feature to always use the service port (out-of-band management port) • The Controller IP addresses are specified manually through the switch user interface • The list of OpenFlow Controllers and the controller connection options are stored in the Controller Table • The OpenFlow component in M4300 software uses this information to set up and maintain SSL connections with the OpenFlow Controllers • M4300 implements a subset of the OpenFlow 1.0.0 protocol and a subset of the OpenFlow 1.3 • It also implements enhancements to the OpenFlow protocol to optimize it for the Data Center environment and to make it compatible with Open vSwitch Tier 1 availability Virtual Chassis Stacking technology upsurges overall network availability, providing both better resiliency in network architectures, and better performance with advanced load balancing capabilities between network uplinks • Up to (8) M4300 switches can be aggregated using a virtual back plane and a single console or web management interface • There is no 10G port pre-configured as Stacking port: all 10G ports are configured in Ethernet mode by default --Port configuration can be changed to Stack mode in Web GUI (System/ Stacking/Advanced/Stack-port Configuration) --Or using CLI command > in Stack Global Configuration section • Other devices in the network see the stack as a single bridge or a single router • Within the stack, a switch is elected (or chosen based on priority settings) as the "management unit" responsible for the stack members' routing tables • Another switch is designated (or chosen based on priority settings) as an alternate, backup management unit • In typical spine and leaf architectures, 10G "spine" switches are meant to handle management unit and backup management unit roles • The Nonstop Forwarding (NSF) feature enables the stack to secure forwarding end-user traffic when the management unit fails • Nonstop forwarding is supported for the following events: --Power failure of the management unit --Other hardware failure causing the management unit to hang or to reset --Software failure causing the management unit to hang or to reset --Failover initiated by the administrator --Loss of cascade connectivity between the management unit and the backup unit • As the backup management unit takes over, end-user data streams may lose a few packets, but do not lose their IP sessions, such as VoIP calls • Instant failover from management unit to redundant management unit is hitless for world-class resiliency and availability • Back to normal production conditions, hitless failback requires a command in CLI or in GUI, for more control Adding a second PSU to full width models enables redundant 1+1 power protection and contributes to business continuity management Distributed Link Aggregation, also called Port Channeling or Port Trunking, offers powerful network redundancy and load balancing between stacked members • Servers and other network devices benefit from greater bandwidth capacity with active-active teaming (LACP-link aggregation control protocol) • From a system perspective, a LAG (Link Aggregation Group) is treated as a physical port by M4300 stack for even more simplicity Rapid Spanning Tree (RSTP) and Multiple Spanning Tree (MSTP) allow for rapid transitionning of the ports to the Forwarding state and the suppression of Topology Change Notification Page 6 of 49