User's Manual

Introduction
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1
Switch Architecture
The SMC8126PL2-F employs a wire-speed, non-blocking switching fabric. This
permits simultaneous wire-speed transport of multiple packets at low latency on all
ports. It also features full-duplex capability on all ports, which effectively doubles the
bandwidth of each connection.
This switch uses store-and-forward switching to ensure maximum data integrity.
With store-and-forward switching, the entire packet must be received into a buffer
and checked for validity before being forwarded. This prevents errors from being
propagated throughout the network.
Power-over-Ethernet Capability
The switch’s 24 10/100/1000 Mbps ports support the Power-over-Ethernet (PoE)
standard that enables DC power to be supplied to attached devices using wires in
the connecting Ethernet cable. Any PoE compliant device attached to a port can
directly draw power from the switch over the Ethernet cable without requiring its own
separate power source. This capability gives network administrators centralized
power control for devices such as IP phones and wireless access points, which
translates into greater network availability.
For each attached PoE device, the switch automatically senses the load and
dynamically supplies the required power. The switch delivers power to a device
using wire pairs in the UTP or STP cable. Ports 1~4 can provide up to 30W of power,
and ports 5~24 can provide up to 15.4W. Network devices such as IP phones,
wireless access points, and network cameras, typically consume less than 10 W of
power, so they are ideal for Power-over-Ethernet applications.
Network Management Options
The SMC8126PL2-F contains a comprehensive array of LEDs for “at-a-glance”
monitoring of network and port status. It also includes a management agent that
allows you to configure or monitor the switch using its embedded management
software, or via SNMP applications. To manage this switch, you can make a direct
connection to the console port (out-of-band), or you can manage the switch through
a network connection (in-band) using Telnet, the on-board web agent, or
SNMP-based network management software.
For a detailed description of this switch’s advanced features, refer to the
Management Guide.