- CABLETRON Systems, Inc, SmartSwitch User's Guide 2E42-27, 2E42-27R, 2E43-27, 2E43-27R

2E4X-27 Overview
2E42-27/2E42-27R/2E43-27/2E43-27R User’s Guide 1-5
All of the devices have two front panel slots (ports 25 and 26) for optional
Fast Ethernet Interface Modules to support an uplink to 100 Mbps Fast
Ethernet backbones or a high speed connection to a local server. There is
also space for an optional HSIM to provide additional connectivity to
various networking technologies.
1.4.2 Full Duplex Switched Ethernet
Each switched Ethernet port supports full wire-speed Ethernet
communications and can be configured to operate in Full Duplex
Switched Ethernet (FDSE) mode. FDSE allows each port to provide a
dedicated 20 Mbps bandwidth for file server or high-end workstation
connections. The Fast Ethernet ports provide up to 200 Mbps of
bandwidth.
1.4.3 SmartTrunk
SmartTrunk, also referred to as SmartTrunking, is Cabletron Systems’
terminology for load balancing or load sharing. SmartTrunk technology
provides an easy-to-implement mechanism to group, or aggregate,
multiple physical links together to scale the backbone bandwidth beyond
the limitations of a single link. All links are user-configurable so
administrators can scale the backbone bandwidth by adding SmartTrunk
links. The SmartTrunk benefits are as follows:
• All purchased bandwidth is used.
• Distributed, resilient links increase reliability and performance.
• Multiple technologies are supported within a single trunk for
maximum flexibility.
For more information about SmartTrunk, refer to the Cabletron Systems
SmartTrunk User’s Guide .