- Cabletron User's Guide SmartSwitch Interface Modules 6H258-17, 6H259-17

Overview
1-4 Introduction
1.1.4 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 links of any technology 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 benefits of SmartTrunking include the
following:
• All purchased bandwidth is used.
• Distributed, resilient links increase reliability and performance.
• Multiple technologies are supported within a single trunk for maximum flexibility.
1.1.5 Remote Monitoring (RMON)
The SmartSwitch modules support all nine Ethernet RMON groups. The Statistics, Alarms, Events
and History groups are enabled on all ports by default.
Cabletron Systems RMON Actions is a vendor-specific extension of RMON and provides the
ability to set an “Action” on any SNMP MIB variable. The Action can be triggered by setting an
RMON Event and/or Alarm. An example of an Action would be to turn off a MIB-2 interface if a
broadcast threshold is crossed.
1.1.6 Broadcast Suppression
Broadcast Suppression enables a user to set a desired limit of receive broadcast frames per port/per
second to be forwarded out the other ports on the module up to the set limit. Any broadcast frames
above this specified limit are dropped. In the event that broadcast frames are being suppressed,
multicast and unicast frames continue to be switched.
1.1.7 Port/VLAN Redirect Functions
The port redirect function, also referred to as “Port Mirroring,” is a troubleshooting tool used to
map traffic from a single source port to a single destination port within the device. This feature
allows frames, including those with errors, to be copied and sent to an analyzer or RMON probe.
NOTE
For information on SmartTrunk configuration, refer to the Cabletron Systems
SmartTrunk User’s Guide .