Allied Telesis Rapier Switch - Manual (Page 7)

Introduction 7
Software Release 2.5.1
C613-02025-00 REV B
What Can the Rapier Switch Do?
The Rapier switch software support for the Rapier Series switches and their
expansion options provides wirespeed Layer 2 switching, including support
for Virtual LANs, wirespeed Layer 3 IP switching, and Layer 3 multiprotocol
routing.
Switching Features
The main Layer 2 features of the switch are:
■ High performance, non-blocking, wire-speed Layer 2 switching (“Layer 2
Switching Process” on page 46).
■ Packet Forwarding at wire speed (“The Forwarding Process” on page 48).
■ Store and Forward switching mode.
■ Autonegotiation of link speed and duplex mode for 10/100 Mbps speed on
all 100BASE TX ports (“Autonegotiation of Port Speed and Duplex Mode” on
page 32).
■ Autonegotiation of duplex mode for 10/100 and gigabit Ethernet ports
(“Autonegotiation of Port Speed and Duplex Mode” on page 32).
■ Automatic, configurable MAC address learning and ageing, supporting up
to 8191 MAC addresses per switch (“The Learning Process” on page 47).
■ Switch Filtering (“Layer 2 Filtering” on page 49).
■ Layer 3 Filtering (Switching chapter in Rapier Switch Software Reference).
■ Broadcast Storm Protection (“Packet Storm Protection” on page 34).
■ Virtual LANs defined by port membership (“Virtual Local Area Networks
(VLANs)” on page 38).
■ Spanning Tree Protocol (“Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)” on page 52).
■ Priority tagging to support four QOS egress queues (“Quality of Service” on
page 50).
■ Port trunking to spread traffic over several links (“Port Trunking” on
page 33).
■ Port mirroring (“Port Mirroring” on page 36).
■ IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) snooping (“IGMP Snooping”
on page 64).