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| Smart Switch solution |
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| ABOUT THE SOLUTION |
| NEED
Small to medium businesses are capitalizing on the low cost and wide availability of high-speed broadband networks by deploying applications that previously only the largest Fortune 500 company could afford. The dramatic cost savings achievable with Internet Telephony and video conferencing are now feasible for even the smallest organization. But the introduction of real-time voice and video traffic into a local area network needs careful consideration if the results are to be successful. Without the proper traffic control mechanisms to prioritize and rate limit the data packets, voice streams can become unintelligible and video images will start to pixelate and break up entirely.
So how can small companies exploit the drastic cost savings that voice and video streaming can give? They don't need enterprise class network switches and routers but do need basic management functionality. This is where SMC can help. SMC's Smart Switches combine the simplicity of plug-and-play unmanaged switches with all the advanced traffic control features that are needed for deploying high performance real-time applications such as voice and video. But SMC does this with simple to use web-based management interfaces so that you don't need to use a cryptic command line interface to set it all up. SMC combines the latest innovations with over 30 years of design experience to give you the smartest switching solutions on the market today |
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| PRODUCTS |
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| DESCRIPTION |
| SOLUTION
The €30 Ethernet switch that you can now buy in any computer store is typically an unmanaged device. While it is fine for connecting a few PCs and laptops in a home or single room office environment, it is not appropriate for use in a small company network with many PCs and servers often located in different rooms or floors. For these environments a more intelligent switch is needed to give the required levels of control, network performance, security and reliability.
But as companies deploy real-time applications such as voice over IP and video streaming, the new traffic can easily impact or be affected by the existing network traffic. For instance, although the actual bandwidth required by a voice over IP conversation is relatively small - about 100 Kb/s on average - it must be delivered with little delay variation or jitter. Otherwise the voice patterns will break up and be incomprehensible to the listener at the other end. Similarly, video streams need larger amounts of bandwidth but are just as susceptible to jitter or delay.
Up to now, the only alternative to a basic unmanaged switch was a full function managed L2 switch or L3 switch/router. For small businesses without their own IT or network support personnel, the configuration and management of these devices can be a daunting task. But not any longer: SMC's Smart Switches combine the simplicity and plug-and-play features of unmanaged switches with the advanced traffic control features of managed switches. They offer the right balance of ease-of-use coupled with real-time traffic control mechanisms without the need for all the sophisticated features provided by higher cost fully-featured managed switches. A simple to use web-based management interface makes it easy to set up the control features needed to handle these new applications correctly.
A Smart Switch allows you to control local area network traffic by:
* Limiting the amount of broadcast traffic and increasing security using VLANs
* Removing potential bottlenecks by introducing port trunking
* Prioritising time-sensitive traffic such as voice and video using Traffic Prioritisation
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